GREEK   SERIES    FOR   COLLEGES   AND    SCHOOLS 

EDITED 
UNDER   THE   SUPERVISION  OF 

HERBERT   WEIR    SMYTH,   PH.D. 

ELIOT   PROFESSOR   OF   GREEK   LITERATURE   IN    HARVARD    UNIVERSITY 


VOLUMES   OF   THE   SERIES 

GREEK   GRAMMAR.     By  the  Editor. 

BEGINNER'S    GREEK    BOOK.      Prof.  Allen    R.  Benner,  Phillips   Academy,   An- 

dover;  and  the  Editor.     $1.25. 

BRIEF    GREEK    SYNTAX.      Prof.  Louis  Bevier,  Jr.,  Rutgers  College.     $0.90. 
GREEK    PROSE    READER.       Prof.  F.  E.  Woodruff,  Bowdoin  College,  and  Prof.  J. 

W.  Hewitt,  Wesleyan  University. 
GREEK    PROSE    COMPOSITION    FOR    SCHOOLS.       Clarence  W.  Gleason, 

Volkmann  School,  Boston.     $0.80. 
GREEK    PROSE    COMPOSITION    FOR    COLLEGES.      Prof.  Edward  H. 

Spieker,  Johns  Hopkins  University.     $1.30. 

AESCHYLUS.      AGAMEMNON.      Prof.  Paul  Shorey,  University  of  Chicago. 
AESCHYLUS.      PROMETHEUS.      Prof.  J.  E.  Harry,  University  of  Cincinnati.     $1.50. 
ARIS  rOPH  ANES.      CLOUDS.      Dr.  L.  L.  Forman,  Cornell  University. 
DEMOSTHENES.      ON  THE  CROWN.       Prof.    Milton  W.   Humphreys,   University 

of  Virginia. 
EURIPIDES.       IPHIGENIA     IN     TAURIS.        Prof.   William   N.    Bates,  University  of 

Pennsylvania.     $1.25. 

EURIPIDES.      MEDEA.      Prof.  Mortimer  Lamson  Earle,  Columbia  University.      $1.25. 
HERODOTUS.       Books  VII.-VIII.       Prof.  Charles  Forster  Smith  and  Prof.  Arthur 

Gordon  Laird,  University  of  Wisconsin.     $i .75. 
HOMER.      ILIAD.      Prof.  J.  R.  S.  Sterrett,  Cornell  University. 

BOOKS  I.-III.  AND  SELECTIONS.    $1.60.     BOOKS  I.-III.    $1.20. 
HOMER.      ODYSSEY.      Prof.  Charles  B.  Gulick,  Harvard  University. 
LYSI  AS.      Prof.  Charles  D.  Adams,  Dartmouth  College.     $1.50. 

PLATO.      APOLOGY  AND  CRITO.      Prof.  Isaac  Flagg,  University  of  California.    $1.40. 
PLATO.      EUTHYPHRO.      Prof.  William  A.  Heidel,  Wesleyan  University.     $i  oo. 
THEOCRITUS.       Prof.  Henry  R.  Fairclough  and  Prof.  Augustus  T.  Murray,  Leland 

Stanford,  Jr.,  University. 

THUCYDIDES.       Books   II.-III.       Prof.  W.  A.    Lamberton,   University  of  Penn- 
sylvania.    $1.75. 

THUCYDIDES.      Books   VI.-VIT.      Prof.  E  D.  Perry,  Columbia  University. 
XENOPHON.      ANABASIS.      Books   I.-IV.      Dr.  M.  W   Mather,  late  Instructor  in 

Harvard  University,  and  Prof  J    W.  Hewitt,  Wesleyan  University. 
XENOPHON.      HELLENICA    (Selections).       Prof.  Carleton  L.  Brownson,  College  of 

the  City  of  New  York.     $i  .65. 
GREEK    ARCHAEOLOGY.      Prof  Harold  N.  Fowler,  Western  Reserve  University, 

and  Prof.  James  R.  Wheeler,  Columbia  University.     $2.00. 

GREEK    LITERATURE.       Dr.  Wilmer  Cave  Wright,  Bryn  Mawr  College.     $1.50. 
GREEK    PUBLIC     LIFE.      Prof.  Henry  A.  Sill,  Cornell  University. 
GREEK    RELIGION.      Prof.  Arthur  Fairbanks,  Director  of  the   Boston   Museum  of 

Fine  Arts. 
GREEK    SCULPTURE.      Prof   Rufus  B.  Richardson,  late  Director  of  the  American 

School  of  Classical  Studies,  Athens. 
INTRODUCTION     TO    THE    GREEK    DRAMA.      Prof.  William  Fenwick 

Harris,  Harvard  University. 

BEGINNER'S    NEW    TESTAMENT    GREEK    BOOK.      Prof.  William  H. 
P.  Hatch,  General  Theological  Seminary,  New  York. 

Others  to  be  announced  later. 


A    HANDBOOK 


OF 


GREEK   RELIGION 


BY 
ARTHUR   FAIRBANKS 


NEW  YORK-:.  CINCINNATI.:- CHICAGO 

AMERICAN    BOOK    COMPANY 


COPYRIGHT,  1910,  BY 
AMERICAN   BOOK  COMPANY. 

ENTERED  AT  STATIONERS'  HALL,  LONDON. 


FAIRBANKS.      GREEK   RELIGION. 
W.  P.     2 


PREFACE 

ALTHOUGH  the  mythology  of  Greece  is  a  familiar  subject,  and 
Greek  religious  antiquities  have  long  been  studied,  Greek  re- 
ligion, as  such,  is  a  comparatively  unknown  field.  In  the  pres- 
ent volume,  religious  antiquities,  forms  of  revelation,  and  worship 
and  belief  are  discussed  in  Part  I.  from  the  standpoint  of  their 
religious  significance.  It  may  be  that  readers  who  are  more 
interested  in  the  content  than  in  the  form  of  Greek  religion  will 
pass  from  the  Introduction  directly  to  Parts  II  and  III,  but 
Part  I  has  been  left  in  its  logical  place.  Greek  mythology,  on 
the  other  hand,  finds  no  place  in  the  discussion.  If  too  much 
emphasis  has  been  laid  on  the  difference  between  mythology 
and  religion,  it  may  be  regarded  as  a  natural  reaction  from  the 
usual  identification  of  two  quite  different  interests  of  the  Greek 
mind. 

For  various  reasons  Greek  religion  is  not,  like  Greek  my- 
thology, an  easy  subject  to  handle.  There  is  one  mythology, 
or  at  least  a  tendency  to  one  mythology,  as  over  against  many 
almost  unrelated  forms  of  worship.  Moreover,  mythology  lent 
itself  to  literary  treatment,  while  many  of  the  data  for  Greek 
religion  come  in  fragmentary  form  from  late  authors.  As  to 
other  sources,  inscriptions  are  very  important,  but  they  deal 
only  with  detail ;  while  archaeological  remains  are  often  difficult 
to  interpret.  Although  no  complete  picture  is  possible,  it  is 
hoped  that  this  presentation  of  the  subject  will  give  a  point  of 
view  which  will  be  helpful  in  understanding  Greek  authors  as 
well  as  in  determining  the  contribution  of  Greece  to  the  religious 
conceptions  and  forces  of  the  later  world. 

ARTHUR   FAIRBANKS. 
April,  1910. 


CONTENTS 


INTRODUCTION 13 

Was  there  a  Greek  religion?     Mythology  and  religion.     The 
local  shrine.     What  did  religion  mean  to  the  Greeks? 


PART  I 

FORMS  OF  RELIGIOUS  BELIEF  AND  PRACTICE  IN 
ANCIENT   GREECE 

CHAPTER 

I.    REVELATION  AND  INSPIRATION 39 

The  Greek  conception  of  revelation.  Theophany  in  the  Ho- 
meric poems.  Signs  in  the  ordinary  course  of  nature.  Signs  in 
nature  :  birds.  Minur  signs  in  nature :  chance  words,  etc.  Divi- 
nation by  means  of  sacrificial  victims.  Inspiration :  (a)  dreams ; 
(3)  prophets.  Oracles. 

II.    THE  WORSHIP  OF  THE  GODS 65 

Sacred  places.  Sacred  times.  Sacred  persons;  priests  and 
attendants.  Forms  of  worship :  (<?)  prayers,  hymns,  curses, 
oaths;  (l>)  votive  offerings,  processions,  athletic  contests  ;  (c)  the 
sacrificial  meal ;  (</)  propitiatory  sacrifice,  purification.  Worship 
from  the  standpoint  of  the  state  ;  panhellenic  worship.  Wor- 
ship of  the  individual  and  the  home.  The  Eleusinian  mysteries. 

III.  THE  GREEK  GODS .138 

The  gods  in  their  relation  to  the  world.  The  nature  of  the 
gods  as  individuals.  Zeus,  Hera,  Athena,  Apollo,  Artemis.  Gods 
associated  with  the  earth,  the  waters,  and  the  heavens.  Gods  of 
human  activities  and  emotions.  Heroes. 

IV.  THE  SOUL  AND  THE  FUTURE  LIFE 168 

The  epic  conception  of  the  soul.  Traces  of  an  early  worship 
of  the  dead.  Funeral  rites.  The  worship  of  souls.  The  gods 
of  the  underworld.  Transfiguration  of  the  future  life  in  the  wor- 
ship of  Dionysus  and  of  Demeter. 

7 


8  CONTENTS 

PART  II 
HISTORICAL  SKETCH  OF  RELIGION  IN  GREECE 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

I.    THE  BEGINNINGS  OF  GREEK  RELIGION 189 

Periods ;  methods  of  investigation.  The  type  of  early  religion 
in  Greece.  Early  religion  in  the  light  of  archaeological  remains. 
Early  religion  as  inferred  from  the  following  period. 

II.  RELIGION  IN  THE  GREEK  "MIDDLE  AGES"         ....    215 

Changes  in  the  period  1 100-700  B.C.  Religion  in  the  Homeric 
poems.  The  theogony  of  Hesiod. 

III.  RELIGION  IN  THE  SEVENTH  AND  SIXTH  CENTURIES  B.C.     .        .    230 

Social  and  political  changes  ;  literature.  Changes  in  belief 
and  worship.  The  rise  of  Dionysus  worship.  The  Orphic  move- 
ment. 

IV.  RELIGION  IN  THE  FIFTH  AND  FOURTH  CENTURIES  B.C.  ;   HEL- 

LENISM AT  ITS  HEIGHT 249 

The  Persian  wars  and  the  exaltation  of  the  Athenian  state. 
The  first  Athenian  empire.  The  Peloponnesian  war.  The  fourth 
century. 

V.    THE  OUTCOME  OF  GREEK  RELIGION 273 

Religion  in  the  Hellenistic  age.  The  influence  of  Greek  re- 
ligion on  Roman  religion.  Greek  religion  and  Christianity. 

PART    III 
RELIGION  AND   OTHER   PHASES   OF   LIFE  IN   GREECE 

I.     RELIGION  IN  RELATION  TO  ART  AND  LITERATURE      .        .        .    294 

The  general  connection  of  art  and  religion.     The  influence  of 
religion  on  art  and  literature.     The  influence  of  art  and  literature 
on  religion. 
II.     RELIGION  AND  THE  ORGANIZATION  OF  SOCIETY  ....     506 

Religion  and  ethics.  Religion  and  the  social  group.  Religion 
and  the  state. 

III.  RELIGION  AND  P.IILOSOPHY 322 

Early  Greek  philosophy  ;  criticism  of  religion.  Plato  and  his 
successors  ;  the  philosophic  statement  of  religion. 

IV.  THE  DISTINCTIVE  NATURE  OF  GREEK  RELIGION          .        .        .    334 

"Monotheism"  in  Greece.     The  nature  of  a  god  in  Greece. 

Sin  and  the  remedy  for  sin.    The  conception  of  the  religious  life. 

APPENDIX  I.    THE  HISTORICAL  DEVELOPMENT  OF  A  GREEK  GOD      .    350 

APPENDIX  II.    TABLE  OF  RELIGIOUS  FESTIVALS  AT  ATHENS       .        .    364 

APPENDIX  III.    BIBLIOGRAPHY 366 


1.  Zeus  from  Mylasa  (Boston) 15 

Photograph. 

2.  Late  Greek  Relief    ..........       20 

Baumeister,  Denkmaler,  i.  97,  fig.  103. 

3.  Section  of  the  Frieze  of  the  Parthenon  (Athens)      ....       24 

Photograph. 

4.  Aphrodite  from  Melos  (Louvre)       .         .         .         .         .         .         .31 

Photograph. 

5.  Athenian  Red-figured  Vase  Painting 45 

Millin,  Peintures  des  vases  antiques,  I,  pi.  35. 

6.  Athenian  Red-figured  Vase  Painting  (Gotha)  ....       48 

Man,  Inst.  9,  pi.  53. 

7.  View  of  the  Cliffs  at  Delphi .  59 

Photograph. 

8.  Plan  of  the  Precinct  of  Apollo  at  Delphi 6l 

Luckenbach,  Olympia  und  Delphi,  p.  45. 

9.  View  of  the  Ruins  of  the  Shrine  of  Apollo  at  Delphi        ...       62 

Photograph. 

10.  Early  Black-figured  Vase  Painting  (British  Museum)       ...       68 

Jour.  Hell.  Stud.  \,  pi.  7. 

11.  Athenian  Black-figured  Vase  Painting  (Lekythos,  Athens)       .         .       69 

Jahr.  Inst.  6  (1891)  36,  fig.  23. 

12.  The  Great  Altar  at  Pergamon  (restoration)       .....       70 

Ergebnisse  der  Ausgrabungen  zu  Pergamon,  III,  pi.  19. 

13.  Ground  Plan  of  the  Parthenon 72 

Baumeister,  Denkmaler,  2.  1172,  fig.  1362. 

14.  Section  of  the  Frieze  of  the  Parthenon      ......       73 

Photograph. 

15.  Coin  of  Megalopolis  (Reign  of  Caracalla) 73 

Imhoof-Blumer    and    Gardner,   Numismatic   Commentary  on 
Pausanias,  pi.  V.  vi. 

16.  Gem  by  Aspasius      .         .         .         .         .         .  .         .         .74 

Furtwangler,  Antike  Gemmen,  pi.  49.  12. 

17.  Athenian    Red-figured   Vase    Painting    (Stamnos    in   the    British 

Museum)      ...........       7? 

Gerhard,  Auserlesene  Vasenbilder,  pi.  155. 

18.  Marble  Seat  for  the  Priest  of  Dionysus  in  the  Theatre  at  Athens      .       80 

Photograph. 

9 


io  LIST   OF    ILLUSTRATIONS 

FIGURE  PAGE 

19.  Relief  from  the  Asclepieum  at  Athens      ......       90 

Bull.  Corr.  Hell.  2  (1878),  pi.  8. 

20.  Relief  from  Thessaly  (Thebes)          .         .         ....         .92 

Daremberg-Saglio,  p.  376,  fig.  2543. 

21.  Clay  Tablet  from  Corinth          .  •       .         .         .•        .         .         .  93 

Ant.  Denk.  I,  Taf.  8,  fig.  20. 

22.  Marble  Relief  (Athens) 94 

Ath.  Mitih.  18  (1893),  Taf.  u. 

23.  Votive  Frog  from  the  Peloponnese 95 

Daremberg-Saglio,  p.  375,  fig.  2538. 

24.  Athenian  Red-figured  Vase  Painting  (Stamnos  in  Munich)      .         .       99 

Gerhard,  A  us.  Vas  Taf.  81. 

25.  Athenian  Red-figured  Vase  Painting  (Krater  in  Boston)          .         .     101 

From  a  drawing. 

26.  Athenian  Red-figured  Vass  Painting  (Kylix  in  Athens)   .         .         .     104 

Jour.  Hell.  Stud.  10  (1889),  pi.  I. 

27.  Relief  in  Thebes 108 

Stengel,  Griech.  Cultusalt.  Taf.  I,  fig.  2. 

28.  Scene  on  a  Greek  Gem I  io 

Baumeister,  Denkmaler,  2.  914,  fig.  988. 

29.  Athenian  Red-figured  Vase  Painting  (Amphora  in  Munich)     .         .113 

Benndorf,  Griech.  Sic.  Vas.  Taf.  9. 

30.  Scene  from  Panathenaic  Amphora  (British  Museum)       .         .         .114 

Baumeister,  Denkmaler,  2.  1152,  fig.  1346. 

31.  Plan  of  the  Ruins  at  Olympia  .         .         .         .         .         .         .  116 

Hachtman,  Olympia,  20. 

32.  Athenian  Red-figured  Vase  Paintinsj         .         .         .         .         .         .123 

Panofka,  Griechen  und  Griechinnen,  fig.  14. 

33.  Relief  in  Athens 123 

Ath.  Mitth.  17  (1892)  229. 

34.  Plan  of  the  Ruins  of  the  Asclepius  Precinct  at  Epidaurus         .         .     125 

Frazer,  Pausatiias. 

35.  Ground  Plan  of  the  Telesterion  at  Eleusis 128 

Borrmann,  Geschichte  der  baukunst,  I,  fig.  1 20. 

36.  View  of  the  Ruins  at  Eleusis 129 

Photograph. 

37.  Vase  with  Figures  in  Relief  (St.  Petersburg) 130 

Baumeister,  Denkmaler,  i.  4-4,  fig.  520. 

38.  Marble  Funerary  Urn  (Terme  Museum,  Rome)        ....     133 

Bull.  Comm.  Arch.  Rom.  7  (1879),  pi.  2. 

39.  Fragment  of  a  Small  Votive  Figure  (Eleusis)  .....     134 

Ath.  Mitth.  17  (1892)  129,  fig.  4. 

40.  Marble  Relief  from  Eleusis 136 

Photograph. 


LIST   OF   ILLUSTRATIONS  n 

FIGURE  PAGE 

41.  Coin  of  Elis  (Hadrian) 149 

Gardner,  Types  of  Greek  Coins,  pi.  15.  19. 

42.  Hera  Ludovisi  (Terme  Museum,  Rome) 150 

Photograph. 

43.  Bronze  Statuette  of  "  Athena  Promachos  "  (Boston)         .         .         .151 

Photograph. 

44.  Coin  of  Croton          .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .151 

Friedlander-Sallet,  Das  kgl.  Munzkab.  in  Berlin,  pi.  8.  761. 

45.  Coin  of  Gela  (about  485  B.C.) 153 

Hill,  Handbook  of  Greek  and  Roman  Coins,  pi.  3.  7. 

46.  Coin  of  Selinus  (about  460  B.C.)       .......     154 

Hill,  Handbook  of  Greek  and  Roman  Coins,  pi.  6.  2. 

47.  Athenian  Red-figured  Vase  Painting  (St.  Petersburg)      .         .         .157 

Baumeister,  Denkmaler,  I.  104,  fig.  no. 

48.  Athenian  White  Lekythos  (Jena) 158 

Schadow,  Eine  attische  Grablekythos,  fig.  I. 

49.  Handle  of  a  Greek  Bronze  Mirror  (fourth  century  B.C.,  Boston)       .     160 

Photograph. 

50.  Athenian  Red-figured  Vase  Painting 162 

Photograph. 

51.  Athenian  Red-figured  Vase  Painting  (Krater,  Paris)         .         .         .     171 

Furtwangler-Reichhold,  pi.  60. 

52.  Athenian  White  Lekythos  (Vienna)         .         .         .         .         .         .     173 

Benndorf,  Griech.  Sic.  Vas.  Taf.  33. 

53.  Street  of  Tombs  at  Athens  (Cerameicus) 175 

Photograph. 

54.  Terra  Cotta  Figurines  from  Tombs  at  Tanagra  (Boston) .         .         .     177 

Photograph. 

55.  Athenian  White  Lekythoi  (Athens) 181 

Photograph. 

56.  Apulian  Red-figured  Vase  Painting 183 

Baumeister,  Denkmaler,  3.  1928,  fig.  2042  B. 

57.  Section  and  Plan  of  Domed  Tomb  (Tholos)  at  Mycenae          .         .     198 

Tsountas-Manatt,  The  Mycenaean  Age,  figs.  42  and  43. 

58.  Attic  Black-figured  Vase  Painting    .         .         .         .'        .         .         .     199 

Jahr.  Inst.  13  (1898),  fig.  4. 

59.  Plan  of  the  Dictaean  Cave 200 

Brit,  School  Ann.  6  (1899)  94,  pi.  8. 

60.  The  "  Shrine  of  the  Double  Axes  "  at  Cnossos 201 

Brit.  School  Ann.  8  (1901)  97,  fig.  55. 

61.  Libation  Tables  and  Dishes 203 

Brit.  School  Ann.  6  (1899),  pi.  u. 

62.  Steatite  Vase  from  Hagia  Triada 204 

Monumenti  Antichi,  13,  Tav.  i  and  3. 


12  LIST   OF   ILLUSTRATIONS 

FIGURE  PACE 

63.  Steatite  Offertory  Scene   .         .         . 205 

Brit.  School  Ann.  9  (1902)  129,  fig.  85. 

64.  Gem  from  Vaphio    ..*..<>....     206 

'E</>.  'Apx-  1889,  pi.  10,  35. 

65.  Thin  Gold  Placque  from  Mycenae 207 

Photograph. 

66.  Faience  Figure  from  Cnossos 208 

Brit.  School  Ann.  9  (1902)  75,  fig.  54. 

67.  Gold  Ring  from  Mycenae         .         .  .         .         .         .         .     209 

Schuchhardt,  Schliemanns  Ausgrabungen,  p.  313. 

68.  Marble  Relief  from  the  Peiraeus  (Berlin)         .....     212 

Harrison,  Prolegomena  to  the  ^tudy  of  Greek  Religion,  19,  fig.  2. 

69.  Athenian  Red-figured  Vase  Painting  (Kylix  by  Hieron,  Berlin)        .     235 

Boetticher,  Baumkultus,  Taf.  42. 

70.  Terra  Cotta  Relief  from  Campania   .......     246 

Baumeister,  Denkmaier,  i.  449,  fig.  496. 

71.  Figure  of  Isis  with  Sistron         ........     276 

Baumeister,  Denkmaler,  i.  761,  fig.  812. 

72.  Athenian  Black-figured  Vase   Painting  (Loutrophoros  from  Cape 

Colias) 287 

Mon.  Inst.  Tav.  8.  5. 

73.  Coin  of  Naxos  (about  460  B.C.) 301 

Hill,  Greek  and  Roman  Coins,  pi.  6.  i. 

74.  Marble  Statue  of  Dionysus  from  Tivoli  (Terme  Museum,  Rome)  302 

Photograph. 

75.  Athenian  Red-figured  Vase  Painting 308 

Rochette,  Mon.  inedit.  Tav.  36. 

76.  Marble  Relief  in  Athens  .         .         .         .         .         .         .        .         .     318 

Photograph. 


INTRODUCTION 

1.  Was  there  a  Greek  Religion?  —  The  rich  and  varied 
mythology  of  Greece  is  studied  by  the  historian,  by  the  poet, 
by  every  reader  of  the  ancient  classics,  and  it  has  been  studied 
with  more  or  less  interest  ever  since  the  Homeric  poems  were 
composed  ;  but  the  question  whether  these  gods  were  worshipped 
is  rarely  asked.  Such  a  strange  condition  of  affairs  is  due  partly 
to  the  nature  of  these  gods,  partly  to  a  narrow  conception  of  what 
religion  is,  partly  to  the  fact  that  the  Greeks  had  no  religious 
dogma  and  left  no  sacred  writings.  The  picture  of  the  Greek 
gods  in  myth  certainly  does  not  inspire  religious  sentiments  or 
suggest  worship.  And  it  is  not  difficult  to  see  that  myths  have 
become  so  familiar  as  quite  to  overshadow  any  religious  side 
which  the  gods  may  have  had  for  their  worshippers.  Not  only 
Greek  poetry,  but  the  poetry  of  Rome  and  of  every  later  European 
literature  as  well,  has  constantly  drawn  its  inspiration  from  these 
myths.  The  question  remains  whether  worship  and  the  religious 
sentiment  expressed  in  worship  were  really  an  important  factor  in 
ancient  Greek  life. 

The  answer  to  this  question  depends  on  our  definition  of 
religion.  Religion  to-day  lays  emphasis  on  one  God,  ever  present 
in  the  world,  but  something  more  than  the  world  itself,  a  god 
whose  wisdom  and  love  are  manifested  with  increasing  clearness. 
Moreover  religion  rests  on  the  revelation  of  this  god  to  man,  and 
the  revelation  is  stated,  however  imperfectly,  in  creeds  and 
dogmas.  A  god  of  absolute  holiness,  the  human  soul  with  eternal 
possibilities  of  blessedness  or  woe,  a  conscience  stamping  every 
act  as  right  or  wrong,  divine  love  as  a  constant  ally  of  the  good, — 
such,  perhaps,  we  understand  to  be  the  ultimate  factors  of  religion. 

13 


i4  GREEK   RELIGION 


They  were  not  present  in  Greece.  The  gods  were  not  holy,  nor 
did  religion  judge  human  life  from  the  ethical  standpoint.  That 
a  god  should  care  for  men  as  men  is  a  thought  which  belongs 
only  to  later  periods  of  Greek  religion.  There  was  no  religious 
dogma,  no  revelation  of  the  divine  will  except  in  particular  cases. 
But  if  religion  is  the  belief  in  a  personal  being  or  beings,  higher 
than  man  and  interested  in  his  welfare,  if  it  is  the  yearning  of  the 
human  heart  for  the  protection  and  sympathy  of  its  gods,  if  prayer 
and  sacrifice  and  the  effort  to  please  the  gods  are  religion,  we  find 
it  in  Greece.  A  Greek  city  was  dotted  with  shrines  where  men 
worshipped,  as  few  cities  are  supplied  with  churches  to-day.  The 
calendar  was  primarily  a  device  for  locating  festivals  to  the  gods, 
sacred  days  which  numbered  quite  as  many  in  the  year  as  our 
Sundays.  When  St.  Paul  found  at  Athens  not  only  temples  for 
many  gods,  but  also  an  altar  "  to  the  Unknown  God,"  erected  to 
correct  any  possible  omission,  he  might  well  call  the  Athenians  a 
"  very  religious  "  people.1  From  the  earliest  effort  to  win  aid  from 
vaguely  conceived  spirits  up  to  the  ideal  of  Zeus  the  father-god 
and  of  Apollo  who  reveals  his  will,  we  may  trace  a  development 
continuous  if  irregular.  And  in  rites  of  feasting  and  dance  and 
sacred  drama,  to  us  strange  indeed,  were  formed  conceptions 
religious  enough  to  affect  our  Christianity  profoundly. 

A  superficial  investigation  is  sufficient  to  establish  the  fact 
that  religious  practices  w£re  as  numerous  and  as  far-reaching 
in  Greece  as  among  any  known  people.  That  religion  rested 
somewhat  lightly  on  men's  shoulders,  that  religious  rites  were  for 
the  most  part  occasions  of  joy  and  gladness,  is  no  reason  for 
refusing  to  recognize  their  genuine  meaning.  It  only  remains  to 
ask  whether  the  meaning  they  did  have  is  sufficient  to  justify  an 
investigation  of  the  facts.  And  to  this  question  also  the  answer 
is  not  difficult.  The  greater  thinkers  of  Greece,  as  well  as  the 
greater  artists,  found  deep  and  important  meaning  in  the  re- 
ligion of  the  people.  No  reader  of  Sophocles  and  of  Plato  fails 
to  be  impressed  with  their  insight  into  religious  truth ;  and  our 

i  Acts  17.  23. 


INTRODUCTION 


copies  of  great  temple  statues,  imperfectly  as  they  reproduce  the 
originals,  yet  are  sufficient  to  show  how  the  artist  found  and  inter- 
preted a  real  religious  sentiment.  As  Aristotle  remarks,1  the  name 
of  father  applied  to  Zeus  is  equivalent  to  "paternal  ruler"  and 
includes  the  idea  of  his  loving  care  for  men.  The  inherent  like- 
ness of  man  and  god,  the 

human-ness  of  god  and  the 
divine-ness  of  man,  has 
rarely  been  grasped  more 
clearly  than  by  the  Greeks. 
It  was  recognized  that  the 
idea  of  communion  under- 
lies worship,  and  that  in 
the  service  of  a  god  man 
grows  like  him.  We  may 
frankly  acknowledge  that 
such  conceptions  were  not 
explicitly  recognized  by  the 
people,  and  still  claim  that 
there  is  a  Greek  religion 
deserving  of  study. 

Nor  was  this  religion 
without  its  continuing  po- 
tency in  later  Europe. 
It  will  appear  later  in  the 
discussion  that  Greek  life 
was  so  shot  through  with 
these  religious  threads  that 
no  phase  of  it  would  have  been  the  same,  if  its  religious  side 
had  been  neglected.  The  Greek  conceptions  and  ideals  which 
reappear  in  modern  life  are  not  free  from  this  stamp.  Further, 
it  will  also  appear  in  the  later  discussion  that  Christianity  itself 
was  modified  and  its  forms  at  least  were  enriched  by  much 
material  from  Greek  religious  rites.  Indeed  one  might  claim  that 

1  Aristotle,  Polit  i.  12. 


FIG.  i.  —  ZEUS  FROM  MYI.ASA  (Boston) 

The  head  is  perhaps  closer  than  any  other 
marble  copy  to  the  statue  of  Zeus  at  Olym- 
pia  by  Pheidias. 


16  GREEK   RELIGION 

Greek  religion  has  exercised  about  as  much  influence,  though  in- 
directly, on  various  phases  of  modern  life,  as  Greek  mythology 
has  exercised  on  modern  literature. 

And  if  Greek  religion  is  to  be  studied  for  the  influence  it  has 
had  on  modern  life,  as  well  as  for  its  immediate  influence  on  other 
phases  of  Greek  life,  the  interest  of  the  study  will  be  much  in- 
creased by  its  connection  with  "  comparative  religion  "  so-called 
(z>.  the  history  of  other  worships  and  beliefs  as  compared  with 
Christianity).  It  is  strange  indeed  that  the  religions  of  India  and 
China,  and  even  of  savage  races,  should  have  been  studied  dili- 
gently to  the  neglect  of  religion  in  Greece  and  Rome.  This  latter 
branch  of  study,  however,  may  profit  by  one  tenet  which  has  been 
established  by  the  study  of  religion  in  other  fields,  viz.,  that  in 
considering  the  Greek  gods  and  their  worship  the  student  is  not 
to  search  for  Christian  conceptions  in  another  field,  but  rather  to 
investigate  the  facts  and  interpret  them  in  the  light  of  the  highest 
religious  experience  he  knows. 

In  the  brief  presentation  of  the  subject  here  attempted,  first, 
the  attention  of  the  reader  is  asked  to  the  phenomena  of  religion 
at  Athens  in  the  fifth  and  fourth  centuries  B.C.  ;  secondly,  the  main 
periods  in  the  history  of  Greek  religion  are  sketched  ;  and  thirdly, 
questions  as  to  the  influence  and  significance  of  Greek  religion 
receive  further  consideration.  So  varied  are  the  details  of  religious 
worship  that  ordinarily  the  usages  of  Athens  alone  have  been  pre- 
sented ;  it  is  only  in  the  effort  to  reconstruct  the  religious  history 
of  earlier  ages  that  a  broader  outlook  is  imperatively  necessary. 
In  order  to  secure  the  proper  standpoint  for  such  a  study  as  is 
here  proposed,  a  few  general  topics  are  treated  in  the  following 
pages  of  the  introduction. 

2.  Mythology  and  Religion.  —  It  has  been  assumed  in  the  pre- 
ceding section  that  Greek  religion  is  something  quite  different 
from  Greek  mythology,  yet  the  fact  remains  that  they  are  often 
confused.  And  inasmuch  as  every  reader  first  becomes  acquainted 
with  the  Greek  gods  through  myth,  it  is  essential  for  the  student 
of  religion  to  seek  a  clear-cut  conception  of  the  relation  between 


INTRODUCTION  17 

religion  and  mythology.  Myths  I  have  defined  elsewhere1  as 
"stories  of  the  acts  of  superhuman  beings,  often  improbable  to  us, 
but  believed  to  be  true  by  those  who  related  them."  The  beings 
which  appear  in  myths  are  inevitably  personal,  for  the  myth  tells 
of  their  actions  ;  and  the  myth  as  inevitably  assumes  the  story 
form.  Some  of  the  tales  appear  to  us  weird,  immoral,  hardly  "  true 
to  life  " ;  yet  they  were  believed  as  distinctly  as  the  child  believes 
in  his  Santa  Claus.  Nor  was  it  till  they  had  really  become  an  ele- 
ment of  literature  that  any  one  could  think  of  taking  license  with 
them.  Myths,  thus  conceived,  stand  close  to  philosophy  and  to 
poetry  :  to  philosophy,  for  problems  of  nature  and  of  human  life 
are  treated  in  these  stories ;  to  poetry,  for  it  is  the  nai've  poetic 
imagination  which  conceives  the  forces  of  the  world  as  personal 
beings.  Their  existence  depended  on  their  power  to  satisfy  the 
intelligence  and  gratify  the  aesthetic  sense  of  those  who  repeated 
them.  But  while  myths  often  expressed  deep  truths  and  were 
ordinarily  accepted  as  true  statements  of  facts,  the  myth  proper 
was  never  an  article  of  dogma.  Among  other  races  the  so-called 
myths  were  sometimes  codified,  sometimes  created,  by  the  priests. 
In  Egypt,  for  instance,  and  in  India,  the  stories  of  the  gods  bore 
this  hieratic  stamp.  The  nature  of  the  priesthood  in  Greece,2 
however,  was  such  that  myths  were  kept  comparatively  free  from 
the  artificial  influence  of  any  organized  theology. 

In  contrast  with  mythology,  religion  is  primarily  a  matter  of 
practice  (worship)  and  of  emotions  expressed  in  worship  (such  as 
reverence  and  the  sense  of  dependence).  It  certainly  includes 
belief  also,  but  in  Greece  the  intellectual  element  remained  rather 
in  the  background,  for  belief  was  not  definitely  formulated  from 
the  religious  standpoint.  It  is  a  most  natural  error,  and  an  error 
involving  some  measure  of  truth,  to  hold  that  Greek  belief  about 
the  gods  was  expressed  in  the  form  of  myth.  The  differences 
between  the  gods  of  mythology  and  the  gods  of  worship  may  be 
discussed  under  three  headings  : 

(i)  Religion  and  mythology  represent  the  gods  from  vitally  dif- 

1  The  Mythology  of  Greece  and  Rome  U9°7),  p.  i.  2  Cp.  infra,  p.  76  f. 

GREEK  RELIGION  —  2 


i8  GREEK   RELIGION 

ferent  standpoints.  Most  of  the  superhuman  beings  in  myths  are 
fundamentally  the  same  as  the  gods  to  whom  men  look  for  help 
in  worship ;  in  myth,  however,  the  imagination  is  absolutely  untram- 
melled'by  any  considerations  of  religion  or  morality.  The  Athena 
springing  full-armed  from  the  brain  of  Zeus,  or  (in  the  Iliad) 
seeking  to  block  her  father's  plans,  is  far  enough  from  the  goddess 
whom  Pheidias  represented  in  gold  and  ivory,  that  spirit  of  wis- 
dom who  stood  for  all  that  was  best  in  the  Athenian  people.  In 
the  Homeric  poems  the  Apollo  worshipped  by  Chryses  (Iliad,  2) 
and  the  Apollo  wounding  Patroclus  from  behind  on  the  battlefield 
(Iliad,  16)  have  little  in  common;  nor  does  Apollo  slaying  the 
Python  while  a  babe  in  arms  suggest  the  sage  spirit  of  Delphi  to 
whom  the  Greek  world  looked  for  guidance.  Mythology  is  not  a 
peculiar  form  of  theology  in  poetic  guise ;  myths  were  originally 
believed  to  be  true,  but  they  were  never  a  religious  creed  ;  they 
were  often  incorporated  in  hymns  of  worship,  but  in  themselves 
they  had  little  enough  to  do  with  worship. 

(2)  It  appears,  further,  that  the  supernatural  beings  of  religion 
by  no  means  coincide  with  the  supernatural  beings  of  myth.  The 
greater  gods  appear  in  both  lists ;  in  addition  mythology  includes 
all  manner  of  inferior  beings,  such  as  nymphs,  satyrs,  centaurs, 
which  rarely  or  never  are  worshipped,  and  a  long  list  of  heroes 
very  few  of  whom  are  worshipped.  On  the  other  hand  the  lesser 
spirits  who  receive  worship  in  some  one  locality,  are  rarely  heeded 
by  myth ;  or  if  the  name  appears  in  myth  it  may  mean  a  person 
radically  different  from  the  one  worshipped.  At  Athens  such 
divine  beings  as  Adrasteia,  Alcon,  Ariste,  Dexion,  Eirene,  Eucleia, 
Hesychos,  Nemesis,  Tritopatreis,  received  worship  but  had  no 
direct  place  in  myth.  It  has  often  been  assumed  that  the  origin 
of  religion  is  to  be  explained  by  means  of  mythology.  So  far  as 
Greece  is  concerned  the  indebtedness  seems  on  the  whole  to  be 
reversed.  Mythology  really  derived  much  of  its  content  from 
religious  ritual,  while  beings  which  originated  in  myth  did  not 
ordinarily  come  to  be  worshipped.  The  gods  of  myth  and  religion 
form  two  groups  which  overlap  but  are  not  identical,  a  fact  which 


INTRODUCTION  19 

seems  simple  enough  when  the  difference  of  standpoint  is  once 
fully  grasped.  If  there  were  no  other  proof  that  myth  is  not  the 
religious  doctrine  of  the  Greek  gods,  it  would  be  sufficient  to 
point  out  that  these  two  groups  of  gods  do  not  coincide. 

(3)  And  where  the  same  names  appear  in  both  lists  their  sig- 
nificance is  by  no  means  the  same.  For  worship  the  gods  are 
located  at  definite  shrines,  where  they  bear  specific  names 
(epithet) ;  in  myth  they  are  as  universal  as  the  known  world,  and 
their  local  relations  are  no  more  than  favorite  haunts.  In  myth 
the  functions  of  each  god  are  sharply  defined  and  his  personal 
character  corresponds  to  his  specific  functions ;  the  god  of  wor- 
ship has  widespread  power  to  bless,  a  power  by  no  means  limited 
to  his  function  in  myth.  The  process  by  which  myths  arose  has 
left  the  gods,  some  in  a  non-moral  form,  some  in  a  form  distinctly 
at  variance  with  human  standards  of  morality.  Worship  did  not 
always  make  of  them  moral  beings,  but  inasmuch  as  the  relation 
between  god  and  worshippers  is  of  a  moral  nature,  and  further, 
inasmuch  as  the  Greek  gods  (like  men)  were  members  of  the 
moral  universe,  the  tendency  in  Greece  is  toward  an  ultimate 
union  of  religion  and  morality.  Finally,  mythology  exists  by  mak- 
ing its  gods  very  human,  and  as  it  develops  into  a  system  the  gods 
acquire  definite  personal  characters.  For  the  worshipper  a  god 
never  loses  that  vague  mysterious  side  which  stirs  the  emotion  of 
awe,  for  there  is  no  limiting  influence  in  worship  to  define  the 
divine  nature.  Even  the  sense  that  gods  are  akin  to  man  is  often 
blunted  in  religious  ritual.  That  the  gods  handled  by  myth  should 
remain  gods  at  all,  that  real  worship  should  be  possible  when  chil- 
dren were  brought  up  on  these  stories  of  Aphrodite  and  Poseidon 
and  Ares,  is  a  lasting  tribute  to  the  religious  spirit  of  the  Greeks. 

While  the  differences  between  religion  and  mythology  are  such 
that  the  two  must  be  studied  separately  and  with  very  different 
aims,  the  fact  remains  that  the  more  important  gods  do  appear 
both  in  myth  and  in  worship.  More  than  this,  there  can  be  no 
question  that  myths  were  passed  on  from  mouth  to  mouth  at  the 
only  international  gatherings  in  Greece,  the  greater  religious  festi- 


20 


GREEK   RELIGION 


vals.  The  influence  of  these  gatherings  would  be  most  marked  on 
that  class  of  myths  which  recite  the  story  of  a  particular  shrine. 
Much  of  the  Homeric  hymn  to  Demeter  (cp.  Part  I,  Chap,  ii,  p. 
135)  describes  in  mythical  form  the  origin  of  her  worship  at  Eleusis, 
and  the  practices  of  worship  were  the  influence  shaping  the  myth 
as  to  the  origin  of  the  cult.  So  the  marvellous  birth  of  Athena  and 


FIG.  2.  —  LATE  GREEK  RELIEF 

Apollo  is  represented  as  a  victorious  musician  at  Delphi,  receiving  a  libation 

from  Nike. 

the  contest  of  Athena  with  Poseidon  are  connected  with  the  wor- 
ship of  the  goddess  on  the  Acropolis.  There  is  no  evidence  that 
priests  ever  had  much  to  do  with  these  myths.  The  popular 
demand  created  an  explanation  for  the  existence  of  the  shrine,  its 
importance,  and  the  character  of  its  worship.  As  the  shrine  grew 
in  influence  its  myths  would  be  carried  far  and  wide  by  pilgrim 
visitors  from  different  parts  of  the  country,  till  they  found  a  place 
in  the  generally  accepted  Greek  mythology.  The  practice  of 
holding  musical  contests  at  religious  festivals  increased  the  oppor- 
tunity for  the  development  of  these  myths,  for  the  poet's  theme 
was  almost  inevitably  chosen  from  the  legend  of  the  shrine  where 
he  sang.  At  Delphi  it  was  Apollo's  birth,  or  his  coming  to  Delphi, 


INTRODUCTION  21 

or  his  victory  over  the  dragon  —  perhaps  all  three  themes  at  once 
—  which  was  celebrated  in  these  contests.  In  this  way  a  myth 
might  find  its  way  into  actual  hymns  of  worship,  though  here  there 
would  be  occasion  only  for  the  bare  outline  of  the  story. 

The  mythical  account  of  Hera's  marriage  to  Zeus  is  apparently 
derived  from  religious  practices  in  the  worship  of  the  goddess  of 
marriage,  though  in  this  instance  the  rites  were  somewhat  widely 
prevalent  instead  of  belonging  to  one  great  festival.  So  the  story 
of  the  second  birth  of  Dionysus  from  the  thigh  of  Zeus  seems  to 
be  a  poetic  statement  of  the  fact  that  Dionysus  worship  was 
introduced  into  Greece  under  the  protecting  aegis  of  Zeus.  In- 
terpreted thus,  it  states  in  poetic  form  an  important  fact  in  the 
history  of  Greek  religion.  Although  myths  did  not  in  Greece 
receive  a  hieratic  stamp  to  mark  them  as  sacred  legend,  the  two 
classes  of  myths  just  noted  —  myths  which  give  facts  of  religious 
history,  and  myths  which  arise  in  the  effort  to  explain  religious  prac- 
tice —  are  not  to  be  neglected  by  the  student  of  religion  itself. 

Again,  it  appears  that  after  myths  have  been  taken  up  into 
literature  they  are  employed  by  the  poets  to  teach  deep  religious 
lessons.  Pindar  and  Simonides  feel  quite  free  to  modify  tales  of 
the  gods  to  accord  with  their  own  religious  ideas ;  while  tragedy 
consistently  handles  the  great  problems  of  life  under  the  form  of 
myth.  On  the  other  hand,  we  have  no  indication  that  officials  of 
religion,  priests  or  prophets,  recognized  sacred  story  as  within 
their  province.  Where  myth  becomes  a  vehicle  of  religious  teach- 
ing, its  real  nature  as  myth  is  essentially  modified  before  it  can 
serve  a  dogmatic  purpose. 

It  is  unreasonable,  however,  to  suppose  that  the  beliefs  con- 
nected with  worship  were  not  modified,  often  radically  modified, 
under  the  influence  of  myths.  The  characteristics  of  the  greater 
gods  in  myth  as  enumerated  above  (pp.  18-19)  affected  the  concep- 
tions of  the  worshipper  both  directly  and  through  the  medium  of 
worship.  When  the  Athenians  worshipped  Athena  as  Itonia,  or 
Hippia,  or  Skiras,  or  Hygieia,  —  and  every  cult  had  some  such 
distinctive  epithet  —  the  picture  of  Homer's  Athena,  one  Athena 


tt 

who  embodied  all  these  forms  and  who  was  honored  in  all  the 
Greek  world  cannot  have  been  wholly  absent  from  their  minds. 
And  it  is  inconceivable  that  the  idea  of  gods  human  enough  to 
sympathize  with  the  needs  and  desires  of  men,  as  they  appear  in 
the  literary  handling  of  myth,  should  not  often  have  lent  new 
meaning  to  ritual.  This  human  side  of  the  gods  of  myth  found 
its  noblest  expression  in  art ;  certainly  art  as  well  as  literature  was 
a  medium  through  which  myth  affected  ritual. 

So  far,  then,  as  the  present  discussion  of  Greek  religion  is  con- 
cerned, myth  as  such  is  definitely  excluded  ;  it  is,  however,  appar- 
ent to  the  reader  that  myths  will  come  into  consideration  at  many 
points  because  of  the  light  they  throw  on  ritual  itself  and  on  the 
religious  ideas  associated  with  ritual. 

3.  The  Local  Shrine.  —  The  contrast  between  religion  and  myth 
appears  most  sharply  in  connection  with  a  conception  which  is 
fundamental  to  the  whole  structure  of  Greek  religion,  the  concep- 
tion of  the  local  shrine.  All  Greek  worship  centres  about  these 
various  shrines  ;  each  shrine  (temple  or  altar)  is  independent  of 
any  other  religious  authority,  and  the  god  of  each  shrine  is  ordi- 
narily treated  as  if  he  were  independent  of  gods  worshipped  else- 
where. The  local  nature  of  Greek  religion  meant  that  there  were 
as  many  religions  as  there  were  cities,  or  rather  as  many  as  there 
were  individual  shrines  all  over  Greece.  The  first  task  of  the 
student  is  to  grasp  the  meaning  of  that  multiform  centre  of  Greek 
religion,  the  local  shrine. 

We  may  consider  the  local  shrine  first  in  connection  with 
the  god  there  worshipped.  At  the  hundreds  of  points  where 
Athena  was  worshipped  in  Greece,  the  goddess  was  never  twice  con- 
ceived in  exactly  the  same  manner.  Even  where  the  epithet  at- 
tached to  her  name  is  the  same,  we  have  no  assurance  that  it  is 
really  the  same  goddess.  For  instance,  the  Athena  Itonia  of  one 
shrine  is  by  no  means  identical  with  the  Athena  Itonia  of  another 
shrine.  At  Athens  Apollo  Pythios,  Apollo  Patroos,  Apollo  Agyieus, 
Apollo  Thargelios,  are  practically  independent  beings  for  worship. 
At  the  one  festival  of  the  Panathenaea  separate  sacrifices  are  offered 


INTRODUCTION  «3 

to  Athena  Polias,  to  Athena  Nike,  and  to  Athena  Hygieia,  as  if  they 
were  independent  gods.1  This  principle  is  diametrically  opposed 
to  the  pictures  of  the  gods  in  myth,  and  it  is  by  no  means  easy  to 
grasp ;  yet  it  is  fundamental  for  the  knowledge  of  Greek  religion. 
Our  problem,  moreover,  is  not  to  determine  how  the  gods  of  myth 
were  split  into  these  different  forms,  but  rather  to  investigate  how 
the  gods  of  worship  were  brought  under  a  few  names  and  in  myth 
were  made  definite,  personal  beings.2 

The  same  facts  may  be  considered  from  the  standpoint  of  the 
city.  The  cults  of  any  one  city  or  tribe  or  family  belong  to  that 
one  social  unit,  and  make  no  appeal  to  outsiders.  In  the  mind 
of  her  worshippers  Hera  of  Argos  is  almost  as  independent  of 
Hera  worshipped  elsewhere,  as  Trophonius  at  Lebadeia  is  inde- 
pendent of  other  earth-spirits.  Each  cult  centre  in  Athens  is 
theoretically  separate  from  every  other ;  its  forms  of  worship,  its 
times  of  worship,  its  priests,  are  peculiar  to  itself.  A  few  cult 
centres,  it  is  true,  are  branches  of  important  cults  elsewhere,3  but 
by  far  the  greater  number  have  no  such  connections.  The  wor- 
shippers at  these  shrines  are  indeed  composed  of  much  the  same 
people;  the  priests  are  appointed  and  accounts  audited  by  the 
same  state;  myth  suggests  that  much  the  same  gods  are  found 
elsewhere.  Except  for  these  somewhat  external  bonds  of  union, 
each  cult  stood  alone  and  by  itself. 

We  may  go  farther  and  say  that  each  god  or  goddess  was  treated 
in  worship  much  as  if  no  other  gods  existed.  The  third  book  of 
the  Odyssey  illustrates  this  statement.  At  the  sacrifice  to  Posei- 
don there  is  no  thought  of  any  other  god  ;  and  the  next  day,  when 
sacrifice  is  offered  to  Athena,  there  is  no  mention  of  Poseidon's 
existence.  With  another  sort  of  animal  for  the  sacrifice  and  a 
slightly  different  ritual,  the  entire  attention  of  the  worshipper  is 
absorbed  in  another  god.  This  state  of  mind  may  be  better  under- 

1  "  Whether  Aphrodite  is  one  person  or  two,  i.e.  Ourania  and  Pandemos,  I  do 
not  know ;  for  even  Zeus,  who  seems  to  be  one  and  the  same,  has  many  epithets 
added  to  his  name."     Socrates  in  Xenophon,  Symp.  8.  9. 

2  Cp.  Rohde,  Die  Religion  der  Griechen,  8-9.  »  Cp.  infra,  p.  68. 


24  GREEK   RELIGION 

stood  by  comparison  with  the  worship  of  saints  in  some  Catholic 
countries ;  in  the  worship  of  some  one  saint  the  other  saints  are 
forgotten  and  at  times  the  thought  of  the  Supreme  Deity  is  ob- 
scured in  the  mind  of  the  worshipper.  So  at  Athens  the  different 
cults  were  mutually  exclusive,  while  they  existed  amicably  side  by 
side.  When  Dionysus  was  worshipped,  Athena  and  Artemis  and 


FIG.  3.  —  SECTION  OF  THE  FRIEZE  OF  THE  PARTHENON  (Athens) 

Three  gods  (Poseidon,  Apollo,  and    Artemis?)   are    represented 
as  "  guests  "  at  the  Panathenaic  festival  of  Athena. 

Poseidon  may  sometimes  have  been  mentioned  in  prayers;  at 
some  festivals  gods  other  than  the  one  worshipped  may  have  been 
invited  to  join  the  repast ; l  nevertheless  the  worshipper's  atten- 
tion was  concentrated  on  one  god  just  as  truly  as  if  no  other  gods 
existed.  Without  interfering  at  all  with  the  polytheism  of  belief, 
worship  was  essentially  monotheistic ;  or  to  use  the  term  invented 
to  describe  just  this  state  of  affairs,  worship  was  "  henotheistic." 
The  connection  of  the  state  with  these  local  centres  of  worship 

1  Compare  the  gods  at  the  Panathenaic  festival,  as  represented  on  the  Parthenon 
frieze. 


INTRODUCTION  25 

may  better  be  considered  along  with  the  general  question  as  to 
the  connection  between  religion  and  the  state.  It  is  enough  to 
say  here  that  the  Greeks  found  it  a  practical  necessity  as  well  as  a 
convenient  and  natural  procedure  to  supervise  the  temples  and 
shrines  through  the  state.  All  these  centres  of  worship  belonged 
to  the  people  as  a  whole  (or  to  some  group  of  the  people  which 
the  state  recognized),  and  the  benefits  of  worship  came  to  the 
people  as  a  whole  rather  than  to  individuals.  Voluntary  religious 
associations  for  the  benefit  of  individuals  were  unimportant  until 
after  the  fifth  century  B.C.  So  it  came  about  that  priests 
were  appointed,  temples  built,  and  the  finances  supervised  by  the 
people  as  a  whole  acting  through  the  state.  Similarly  religious 
law  was  administered  in  courts  established  by  the  state  and  main- 
tained by  its  authority.  Thus  each  local  cult  maintained  the  bond 
between  the  state  and  some  one  point  in  the  world  of  the  gods. 

A  more  important  result  of  the  facts  now  under  discussion  was 
the  absence  of  any  central  religious  authority  for  belief  or  for 
practice.  It  is  characteristic  of  Greek  religion  that  its  gods  were 
accepted,  not  defined.  The  ritual  of  each  shrine  was  something 
definite,  prescribed  in  form,  celebrated  at  particular  times ;  the 
gods,  considered  as  universal  beings,  were  simply  powerful  spirits 
who  demanded  such  worship  at  the  different  cult  centres.  Were 
it  not  for  mythology  we  should  know  little  of  the  gods,  but  perhaps 
we  should  know  as  much  as  the  Greeks  themselves.  And  it  has 
already  been  pointed  out  that  the  myths  were  in  no  sense  theolog- 
ical dogma.  They  contain  no  definitions  either  of  the  gods  or  of 
any  religious  truth  ;  they  were  not  intended  to  edify  or  to  instruct ; 
even  though  they  were  accepted  as  true,  they  were  not  a  state- 
ment of  belief.  It  is  for  this  reason  that  the  myths  were  free  to 
develop  along  poetic  lines.  Nowhere  else  than  in  Greece  were 
myths  of  the  gods  such  pure  products  of  the  untrammelled  imagi- 
nation, nowhere  else  can  they  be  studied  simply  as  artistic  pro- 
ductions. 

The  greater  poets  of  the  fifth  century  were  not  entirely  content 
to  treat  the  gods  in  this  manner.  In  their  writings  we  find  some 


26  GREEK   RELIGION 

attempt  to  define  the  nature  of  god,  and  the  relation  of  man  to 
god.  More  exactly  there  is  some  effort  to  purify  myth  that  it  may 
better  accord  with  religious  sentiment.  Yet  this  end  is  always 
subordinated  to  the  demands  of  the  poetical  ideal.  Moreover,  a 
poetic  theology  may  have  considerable  influence,  but  it  is  binding 
not  even  on  its  creator.  The  attempts  of  philosophy  to  deal  with 
theological  problems  belong  to  a  much  later  date,  and  have  still 
less  significance  for  Greek  religion.  Religious  phenomena  were 
among  the  last  to  receive  philosophical  criticism ;  it  is  in  the  early 
history  of  Christian  thought,  rather  than  in  Greek  religion,  that 
the  reaction  of  philosophy  on  religion  and  the  consequent  develop- 
ment of  theology  may  be  traced.  Greek  religion  remained  to  the 
end  a  religion  without  theology. 

The  real  reason  for  the  absence  of  dogma  is  found  in  the  Greek 
conception  of  authority  in  religious  matters.  Where  a  priestly 
caste  existed,  it  was  for  their  interest  to  develop  belief  in  their 
own  authority  or  in  the  authority  of  sacred  writings  which  were 
wholly  in  their  'charge.  Accordingly  priest-religions  come  to  be 
based  on  an  authoritative  revelation  of  the  divine  will  through  the 
priests.  Or  even  without  conscious  interposition  by  a  priestly 
caste  sacred  books  may  gain  an  authority  only  to  be  explained  by 
assuming  that  they  are  a  direct  revelation  of  the  divine  will.  The 
emphasis  laid  on  the  Bible  as  a  religious  authority  at  the  time  of 
the  Reformation  has  made  this  conception  of  revelation  entirely 
familiar  to  the  modern  reader.  But  in  Greece  there  was  neither  a 
class  of  priests  nor  any  sacred  book  to  serve  as  an  authority 
on  religious  matters.  That  the  Greek  conception  of  revelation 
differed  in  toto  from  the  conception  in  priest-religions  and  in 
book-religions  was  a  necessary  result  (see  Part  I,  Chap,  i)  ;  we  must 
look  elsewhere  to  find  the  standard  of  authority  for  Greek  religion. 

The  only  authority  for  ritual  or  for  belief  in  Greece  was  the  tra- 
dition of  each  particular  local  shrine.1  Ritual  was  the  habit  of 
worship  at  any  one  shrine,  not  codified  in  any  rules,  but  passed  on 

l  Tyler,  Theology  of  the  Greek  Poets,  208  f.;  cp.  Schoemann,  Griech.  Alt.  2.  169 
and  references. 


INTRODUCTION  27 

with  the  authority  of  an  immemorial  antiquity ;  similarly,  the  only 
theology  was  the  habit  of  thought  about  the  god  of  that  shrine, 
which  was  developed  in  its  worshippers.  A  particular  form  of 
worship  was  observed  primarily  because  such  had  always  been  the 
form  of  worship.  If  a  reason  were  asked,  it  was  readily  found  in 
the  statement  that  what  had  gratified  the  god  in  the  past  was  most 
likely  to  gratify  him  again.  And  if  any  change  in  ritual  occurred, 
it  could  be  justified  by  the  claim  that  the  expedient  was  success- 
ful in  gratifying  the  god,  for  he  continued  to  show  his  favor. 
Ordinarily  no  reason  was  asked ;  it  was  enough  to  carry  on  the 
worship  as  it  had  been  carried  on ;  in  other  words,  the  authority 
of  religious  tradition  was  recognized  without  question. 

The  counterpart  to  this  proposition,  however,  must  be  stated  at 
once.  Tradition  never  was  absolutely  binding  so  as  to  preclude 
any  change ;  it  had  authority  only  as  a  good  and  useful  custom. 
In  the  course  of  time  Greek  thought  of  the  gods  changed,  and  the 
change  was  gradually  reflected  in  the  belief  and  practice  at  each 
shrine  where  they  were  worshipped.  Quite  commonly,  however, 
these  changes  consisted  in  additions  to  practices  already  in  vogue. 
The  result  is  that  we  may  detect  at  many  cult  centres  the  different 
strata  of  traditional  practices,  continuing  long  after  their  original 
meaning  had  been  forgotten. 

The  task  of  the  student  of  Greek  religion  is  at  once  revealed  by 
this  state  of  affairs.  He  might  be  glad  to  learn  about  the  origin 
of  religion  in  Greece,  but  that  question  is  relatively  unimportant. 
He  finds  an  immense  mass  of  data  as  to  the  worship  at  different 
shrines,  data  concerning  practices  which  belong  to  long-separated 
epochs  and  which  have  never  been  really  unified.  If  he  is  able 
to  outline  a  historical  hypothesis  which  shall  account  for  the  facts 
at  his  disposal,  assigning  different  practices  to  the  period  in  which 
they  originated  and  explaining  the  religious  ideas  or  ideals  to 
which  they  were  due,  his  task  is  accomplished.  The  multiplicity 
of  data,  the  different  possible  explanations,  and  the  relatively  little 
attention  which  has  been  given  to  the  subject  explain  the  lack  of 
agreement  as  yet  in  regard  to  it. 


28  GREEK   RELIGION 

Greek  religion,  then,  was  without  dogma,  or  any  other  authority 
except  the  tradition  of  each  particular  shrine ;  before  leaving  this 
proposition,  we  must  state  certain  corollaries  or  deductions  from 
it.  In  the  first  place  it  means,  as  was  said  above,  that  there  were 
as  many  forms  of  religion,  if  not  as  many  different  religions,  as 
there  were  local  shrines.  It  does  not  mean  that  there  was  not  a 
constant  interchange  of  ideas  and  even  of  cult-forms,  as  worship- 
pers passed  from  one  shrine  to  another.  From  the  interchange  of 
ideas  and  practices  there  gradually  arose  two  general  types  of  sac- 
rifice, one  a  glad  feast  in  honor  of  the  gods  who  protected  and 
prospered  the  state,  the  other  a  solemn  rite  to  pacify  deities  who 
were  angry  or  to  prevent  the  anger  of  gods  easily  stirred  to  wrath.1 
But  while  these  two  types  of  sacrifice  stand  out  with  some  dis- 
tinctness, while  there  was  a  distinct  tendency  toward  common  prac- 
tices and  common  beliefs  at  other  points,  the  independent  author- 
ity of  each  shrine  remained  unquestioned  and  at  most  shrines  some 
peculiar  practices  were  always  retained. 

A  second  corollary  of  the  above  proposition  is  that  it  was  only 
habit,  habit  not  enforced  by  any  statement  of  its  content,  which 
tended  toward  unity  of  belief  among  a  group  of  worshippers  ;  conse- 
quently the  same  practices  were  often  interpreted  very  differently 
by  those  who  shared  them.  So  long  as  the  people  did  not  ask  any 
formulation  of  religious  ideas,  and  so  long  as  it  was  not  for  the  in- 
terest of  any  one  class  of  the  people  (e.g.  the  priests)  to  perform 
this  task,  it  was  never  done.  Every  one  was  free  to  think  of  the 
gods  as  he  chose.  Aristophanes  might  make  fun  of  them,  Plato 
might  reconstitute  the  idea  of  them  entirely ;  it  made  no  differ- 
ence so  long  as  public  worship  went  on  undisturbed.  At  a  festival 
of  Asclepius  one  might  be  a  scoffer,  one  an  implicit  believer  in  the 
god's  power  to  heal,  many  indifferent  to  anything  except  the  cus- 
tom of  the  city  or  the  meat  distributed  at  the  sacrifice.  We  shall 
not  look  among  such  a  people  for  any  Hebrew  prophet,  any 
intense  preacher  of  spiritual  truth  in  whom  the  religious  con- 
sciousness of  the  nation  was  focussed.  On  the  other  hand  the 
1  Cp.  infra,  p.  97  f.  and  105  f. 


INTRODUCTION  29 

conditions  favored  the  development  of  a  religion  which  touched 
human  life  at  every  point,  and  which  gave  to  every  human  ideal 
its  personal  expression  in  the  divine  world. 

Finally  we  may  note  that  this  complete  absence  of  dogma  was 
most  important  for  the  evolution  of  religion  in  Greece.  Perhaps 
there  never  was  a  people  with  any  degree  of  culture  whose  spirit- 
ual development  was  more  free  and  spontaneous.  The  only  con- 
servative force,  a  force  always  paramount  in  the  history  of  religious 
phenomena,  and  not  at  all  peculiar  to  Greece,  was  the  force  of 
tradition.  But  as  ritual  was  passed  on  from  one  generation  to  an- 
other, the  interpretation  of  the  rites  was  easily  forgotten.  On  the 
one  hand  a  great  spiritual  force  might  be  quickly  dissipated ;  on 
the  other  hand  a  new  spiritual  impulse  readily  found  expression 
either  in  the  old  rites  themselves,  or  in  some  accretion  to  the  old 
ritual.  This  quick  and  complete  response  of  religion  to  concep- 
tions regnant  in  each  phase  of  civilization  makes  the  history  of 
religion  a  most  valuable  commentary  on  the  development  of  the 
Greek  people ;  nowhere  better  than  in  Greece  can  the  natural 
evolution  of  religious  conceptions  and  practices  be  studied,  while 
at  the  same  time  the  task  which  confronts  the  student  of  this  reli- 
gion is  rendered  peculiarly  difficult. 

4.  What  did  Religion  mean  to  the  Greeks?  —  The  question  as 
to  the  significance  of  Greek  religion  is  better  asked  at  the  conclu- 
sion of  the  chapters  which  follow,1  than  in  an  introduction  to 
them  ;  some  consideration  of  the  topic,  however,  may  make  the 
discussion  of  worship  and  belief  more  intelligible.  Some  word  is 
the  more  necessary  because  of  the  emphasis  which  has  often  been 
laid  on  the  investigation  of  the  origin  of  religion.  Perhaps  the  study 
of  Greek  religion  has  suffered  unduly  from  this  trend  of  modern 
thought,  because  matters  seemed  so  clear  and  simple.  With  equal 
confidence  the  origin  of  the  Greek  gods  has  been  assigned  to  a 
habit  of  deifying  natural  phenomena,  and  again  to  a  habit  of  offer- 
ing worship  to  the  souls  of  ancestors.  The  worship  of  ancestors 
was  a  real  and  widespread  element  of  Greek  religion,  but  it 
l  Part  III,  Chap.  iv. 


30  GREEK  RELIGION 

remains  to  be  proved  that  the  worship  of  any  single  god  did  arise 
or  could  have  arisen  from  this  source.  Similarly,  the  hypothesis 
that  the  Greek  gods  arose  from  some  habit  of  deifying  natural 
phenomena  neither  can  be  proved  nor  does  it  serve  to  explain 
the  facts. 

It  seems  clear  that  the  Greeks  did  not  worship  physical  objects, 
whether  sun  or  river  or  growing  tree  or  any  idol.  On  the  con- 
trary, their  religion  served  to  people  the  world  with  superhuman 
beings,  human  in  their  nature  and  in  their  humanity  expressing 
Greek  thought  of  the  world  and  its  phenomena.  Zeus  was  both 
father  of  gods  and  men,  and  the  spirit  of  the  sky ;  rain  came  from 
Zeus,  the  lightning  was  his  weapon,  his  worship  belonged  naturally 
on  high  peaks,  his  home  was  on  Olympus.  Dionysus  was  the  god 
of  the  vine,  even  so  that  the  juice  of  the  grape  seemed  to  be  the 
essence  of  that  spirit  which  makes  for  growth  in  all  vegetation. 
The  dark  wavy  locks  of  Poseidon  recalled  the  dark,  tossing  sea,  in 
the  depths  of  which  were  the  stables  of  Poseidon's  steeds.  Yet 
Dionysus  was  a  human  god  visiting  one  spot  after  another  to  be- 
stow on  men  his  gift  of  the  wine  ;  Poseidon  was  a  boisterous  spirit, 
lover  of  horses,  fond  of  the  battlefield,  watching  over  the  children 
borne  to  him  by  human  wives.  Apollo,  who  came  to  be  associated 
with  the  sun,  was  the  god  of  shepherds,  himself  once  serving  as  a 
shepherd ;  he  was  the  prophet  who  made  known  to  men  the  divine 
will,  the  musician,  the  healer  of  disease.  And  Aphrodite,  as  rep- 
resented in  the  statue  found  at  Melos,  was  the  most  human  of  the 
gods,  not  a  human  passion  deified  for  worship,  but  rather  the  spirit 
in  whom  was  manifested  human  love  as  a  fundamental  principle 
of  the  universe. 

If  we  turn  from  the  greater  gods  to  the  world  near  at  hand,  we 
find  the  same  interpretation  of  nature  in  personal,  all  but  human, 
beings.  The  sailor  sees  spiritual  forces  in  the  storm  or  the  dan- 
gerous hidden  shoal ;  not  the  gods  of  Olympus,  but  spirits  of  the 
sea  sympathize  with  him  and  save  him  in  trouble.  The  farmer's 
daily  work  is  religious  in  that  the  grain,  the  foes  that  threaten  the 
grain,  the  very  earth  on  which  it  grows,  are  animated  by  a  nature 


FIG.  4. — APHRODITE  FROM  MELOS  (Louvre) 


32  GREEK   RELIGION 

like  his  own,  whose  blessing  he  may  gain  by  worship ;  these  rites  are 
indeed  thrown  into  the  shadow  by  the  brilliancy  of  the  Olympian 
worship,  yet  enough  persists  to  show  that  the  facts  of  farming  are 
interpreted  in  terms  of  religion.  And  there  are  many  festivals  like 
those  of  Dionysus  and  Demeter  which  show  that  even  in  city  life 
the  Greeks  did  not  lose  this  spiritual  touch  with  nature. 

The  Greeks  did  not  worship  natural  objects,  but  they  expressed 
their  thought  of  nature  in  spiritual  beings,  for  the  most  part 
friendly  to  man,  who  were  members  of  that  same  community  to 
which  the  human  world  belonged.  To-day  the  sublime  and  the 
beautiful  in  nature  afford  us  aesthetic  gratification  as  facts  out- 
side ourselves ;  similarly  Hebrew  poetry  reflects  a  sense  for  the 
grandeur  and  beauty  of  nature ;  in  Greek  religion  the  attitude 
toward  nature  was  very  different,  for  in  the  forces  there  at  work 
the  Greek  recognized  a  life  like  his  own,  with  which  he  himself 
was  most  intimately  associated.  The  joy  of  spring,  the  sadness 
of  dying  vegetation,  are  poetry  for  us ;  for  the  Greek  they  repre- 
sented the  joy  and  sadness  of  that  community  of  nature  in  which 
he  was  an  integral  part.  In  a  word,  the  Greeks  were  idealists ; 
their  religion  was  not  a  worship  of  nature,  but  a  worship  of  spirits 
(almost  human  spirits)  in  nature ;  by  peopling  their  world  with 
such  spirits,  they  made  nature  an  intelligible,  not  to  say  a  social, 
fact. 

As  for  the  humanity  of  the  Greek  gods,  it  found  an  almost  ex- 
aggerated expression  in  myth.  The  Homeric  gods  exhibit  human 
frailty  and  sin  on  the  same  large  scale  as  human  virtue  and  power. 
Families  which  claimed  a  history  traced  their  descent  from  the 
gods.  Not  only  did  myths  tell  of  the  presence  of  gods  in  the 
society  of  men ;  we  must  go  further  and  say  that  worship  was 
based  on  the  belief  in  such  a  relation  as  actually  existing.  The 
gods  of  other  peoples  were  now  more  vague,  now  more  closely 
bound  up  with  objects  in  nature,  more  abstract,  more  to  be 
dreaded,  perhaps  more  lofty  than  the  Greek  gods ;  none  stood 
in  closer  sympathy  with  man.  It  is  practically  true  that  these 
gods  differed  from  man  only  in  degree,  that  the  king  differed 


INTRODUCTION  33 

from  his  subjects  hardly  less  than  the  gods  differed  from  men. 
In  many  religions  the  development  of  the  gods  was  away  from 
men  toward  moral  or  philosophical  ideals ;  the  Greek  gods  be- 
came more  perfect  only  as  they  more  perfectly  expressed  all  the 
possibilities  of  human  nature.  Artemis  was  never  so  fully  identi- 
fied with  the  moon,  Zeus  with  the  sky,  nor  even  Gaia  with  the 
earth,  as  to  obscure  in  any  degree  their  essentially  human  charac- 
ter. It  is  in  the  grain  goddess  Demeter  that  one  finds  the  best 
example  of  the  mother's  love,  sorrowing  but  finally  triumphant. 
In  worship  as  in  myth  Leto  is  the  mother  proud  of  her  successful 
children,  Hera  the  queenly  wife,  Persephone  the  gentle  daughter, 
Artemis  the  maiden  loving  wild  nature,  —  each  stands  out  a  per- 
sonality because  she  personifies  so  clearly  some  human  relation. 

It  is  from  this  standpoint  that  one  may  best  understand  the 
relation  to  religion  of  such  human  ideals  as  the  ideal  of  beauty 
and  of  morality.  As  beings  intimately  related  to  man,  the  gods 
shared  the  Greek  impulse  toward  the  beautiful.  And  this  means 
not  merely  that  the  highest  expression  of  the  artist's  power  was 
found  in  the  creation  of  divine  images,  and  in  the  erection  of 
suitable  homes  for  the  gods  represented  by  these  images.  It 
does  certainly  mean  that  even  traditions  of  ancient  holy  objects 
must  eventually  yield  to  the  power  of  a  Pheidias  to  give  some 
adequate  conception  of  the  physical  beauty  of  the  gods.  It 
means  that  the  temple,  the  home  of  the  god,  must  be  the  most 
perfect  building  that  could  be  erected.  We  may  even  go  so  far 
as  to  say  that  the  principle  of  beauty  was  what  largely  determined 
Greek  thought  as  to  the  character  and  the  rule  of  the  gods.  The 
unity  and  symmetry  of  their  personality,  the  graciousness  of  their 
nature,  the  kindly  spirit  of  their  relations  to  each  other  and  to 
men,  are  a  reflection  of  that  aesthetic  ideal  which  was  so  domi- 
nant in  Greek  life.  And  the  world  was  beautiful,  the  physical  world 
and  the  social  world,  for  its  unity  and  order  came  from  the  gods.1 

The  connection  between  religion  and  morality  may  be  dismissed 
for  the  present  with  the  statement  that  the  gods  were  moral  beings 

i  See  Part  III,  Chap.  i. 
GREEK  RELIGION  —  3 


34  GREEK   RELIGION 

only  in  the  sense  that  men  were  moral  beings.  It  was  character- 
istic of  the  Greek  mind  not  to  judge  human  life  and  activity  by 
stern  moral  standards.  The  consciousness  of  right  and  wrong 
did  not  enter  into  every  human  act.  And  the  gods  were  human 
enough  so  that  they  could  not  be  conceived  as  the  embodiment 
of  moral  ideals,  or  indeed  as  beings  which  never  transgressed 
moral  law.  Their  rule  was  on  the  whole  righteous,  nor  was  more 
demanded  of  a  king  or  a  god  in  Greece  before  the  days  of  phi- 
losophers and  theologians. 

Nowhere  does  the  essentially  human  nature  of  the  Greek  gods, 
and  at  the  same  time  their  relation  to  the  physical  world,  come 
out  more  clearly  than  in  the  consideration  of  the  "  divine  govern- 
ment "  of  the  world.  These  gods  did  not  create  the  world  out  of 
nothing,  for  man  has  no  such  mysterious  faculty  which  he  could 
transfer  from  himself  to  the  gods.  The  existence  of  matter  was 
assumed ;  and  as  it  was  man's  task  to  subdue  physical  agencies  to 
serve  human  ends,  so  it  belonged  to  the  gods  to  bring  the  physical 
world  under  the  rule  of  reason.  So  Poseidon  granted  safety  to 
sailors ;  Athena  and  Hephaestus  taught  men  the  arts  and  crafts ; 
and  Demeter  showed  them  how  to  cultivate  the  grain.  Yet  it  was 
in  the  social  world,  in  the  relations  of  men  to  each  other  and  to 
the  community,  that  the  rule  of  the  greater  gods  was  most  clearly 
manifest.  The  activities  of  the  gods,  as  men  came  in  contact  with 
them,  were  not  universal  forces,  but  particular  acts  which  ordina- 
rily had  in  view  some  particular  end.  The  relation  of  the  gods 
to  each  other  in  their  rule  of  the  world  was  like  the  relation  of 
members  in  some  human  council,  in  that  the  social  unity  of  such 
a  council  came  to  express  the  essential  unity  of  the  city  they  gov- 
erned. That  the  sway  of  reason  in  the  world  and  consequently 
the  unity  of  the  world  was  to  be  an  achievement,  that  the  gods 
belonged  in  the  same  society  with  men  working  together  toward 
this  common  goal,  and  that  men  might  therefore  look  for  the  par- 
ticular aid  of  the  gods  in  every  phase  of  human  activity,  —  such 
were  the  principles  of  divine  government  as  conceived  by  the 
Greeks. 


INTRODUCTION  35 

The  general  significance  of  worship  in  Greece  is  quite  in  line 
with  what  has  been  said  as  to  the  nature  of  the  gods  and  the  char- 
acter of  their  rule.  Among  primitive  peoples  religious  ritual  is  the 
effort  to  drive  away  or  to  control  for  good  the  mysterious  forces 
in  the  world ;  and  the  method  is  ordinarily  what  we  should  call 
magic,  though  at  times  there  is  found  something  like  barter  be- 
tween men  and  spirits.  Magic  was  not  at  all  foreign  to  Greek 
thought,  but  it  was  entirely  foreign  to  the  worship  of  the  greater 
gods.  On  the  other  hand,  it  was  quite  possible  for  Plato1  to 
describe  piety  as  a  sort  of  trade  between  men  and  gods,  or  as  a 
knowledge  of  the  right  way  to  ask  for  what  one  wants  and  to  give 
the  gods  in  exchange  what  they  want ;  although  one  must  be 
blinder  than  Euthyphro,  if  he  fails  to  see  Plato's  satire.  Worship, 
in  truth,  was  no  more  magic  or  barter  than  it  was  purely  spiritual 
adoration. 

The  only  standpoint  from  which  worship  can  be  understood  is 
found  in  the  distinct  recognition  that  the  gods  were  superior 
members  of  that  same  society  in  which  men  live.  For  Greek 
worship  is  no  less  human  than  the  Greek  gods.  That  the  sympo- 
sium after  the  banquet  should  begin  and  end  with  prayer ;  that 
the  chief  function  of  religion  should  be  no  painful  rite,  no  long 
and  tedious  service,  no  task  of  the  intellect,  but  a  joyous  feast  on 
sacrificed  flesh ;  that  comedy  and  tragedy  should  develop  in  con- 
nection with  the  religion  of  Dionysus ;  that  art  should  be  so  human 
in  its  service  of  the  gods  ;  that  even  gymnastic  contests  and  horse- 
racing  should  come  within  the  pale  of  religion,  —  all  this  is  so  far 
from  our  conception  of  divine  worship  as  at  first  to  puzzle  and 
confuse  the  student.  The  key  to  the  puzzle  is  simply  that  every 
side  of  man  found  expression  in  this  human  religion.  Political 
assemblies  began  with  worship  that  was  no  empty  form  ;  for  the 
gods  cared  for  the  state  just  as  did  its  citizens.  Marriage  and  the 
bringing  up  of  children  was  at  every  point  under  the  protection 
of  the  gods.  Needing  bread  and  wine,  men  worshipped  Demeter 

i  Euthyphro,  14  E;  Pollticus,  290  D;  cp.  C.I. A.  1.  397  (Kajbel,  Epigr.  graec^ 
753)- 


36  GREEK   RELIGION 

and  Dionysus;  needing  health,  Asclepius;  needing  care  for  their 
flocks,  Apollo  or  Hermes  or  Pan.  For  a  knowledge  of  the  future 
they  could  consult  the  oracles.  With  the  thought  of  death  before 
them,  they  listened  to  the  invitation  to  the  mysteries  where  they 
might  obtain  the  blessing  of  the  queen  of  the  dead.  While  it  is 
universally  true  that  religion  arises  to  meet  human  need,  perhaps 
nowhere  is  this  need  met  at  so  many  points  and  in  so  purely 
human  a  manner  as  in  Greece. 

The  conception  of  the  gods  as  higher  members  of  the  same 
social  world  with  man  involves  a  double  idea  of  the  nature  of 
worship  ;  it  was  only  right  in  the  first  place  for  men  to  pay  divine 
rulers  their  due,  and  secondly  it  was  reasonable  to  seek  connection 
with  the  gods.  Both  in  the  practice  of  bringing  to  the  gods  votive 
offerings  of  some  intrinsic  value,  and  in  the  usual  forms  of  sacri- 
fice, the  gods  were  treated  in  much  the  same  manner  as  human 
rulers.  From  this  point  of  view  worship  might  be  described  baldly 
as  a  tax  paid  to  the  gods  to  insure  the  continuance  of  their  favor 
to  their  subjects.  The  difference  between  barter  and  a  tax  paid  to 
the  gods  lies  in  the  fact  that  barter  presupposes  some  equality 
between  the  two  parties,  while  a  tax  involves  a  recognition  of  the 
ruler's  superiority.  Further,  the  ancient  idea  of  taxation  makes 
it  something  very  different  from  the  businesslike  transaction  fa- 
miliar to  us.  The  Athenian  words  for  the  few  extraordinary  taxes 
paid  by  full  citizens  were  dafyopa.  and  XtiTovpyia,  the  first  a  "  con- 
tribution "  paid  only  in  the  stress  of  war,  the  second  a  "  service  " 
which  in  theory  (though  not  in  practice)  was  voluntarily  performed 
by  such  citizens  as  possessed  sufficient  property.  It  is  in  fact  the 
second  of  these  words,  Xurovpyia  (English,  liturgy},  which  was  at 
times  used  as  a  name  for  worship.  We  may  say  with  entire  truth, 
then,  that  worship  was  like  that  form  of  taxation  with  which  the 
Athenians  were  familiar,  in  that  it  was  a  voluntary  gift  which  was 
rightly  expected  from  men  on  certain  occasions. 

While  this  conception  of  worship  applies  especially  to  votive 
offerings,  the  second  idea  is  predominant  in  the  common  type  of 
sacrifice.  The  normal  form  of  worship  at  a  festival  of  any  god 


INTRODUCTION  37 

consisted  first  in  processions  and  secondly  in  a  common  meal 
shared  alike  by  the  god  and  his  worshippers.  The  procession  was 
no  whit  different  from  such  triumphal  processions  as  have  been 
familiar  to  European  thought  from  the  greater  days  of  Rome  on 
till  the  present.  At  Athens  a  great  concourse  of  men,  headed  by 
priests  and  carrying  sacred  utensils,  brought  honor  both  to  the  city 
and  to  its  gods  as  it  slowly  made  its  way  to  the  place  of  worship. 
And  the  use  of  the  common  meal  as  a  form  of  worship  is  not 
entirely  foreign  to  our  thought,  for  it  is  perpetuated  in  the  Lord's 
Supper  of  the  Christian  church.  Only,  the  point  emphasized  in 
Greece  was  not  so  much  the  sacredness  of  the  food  as  the  belief 
that  a  common  meal  renewed  the  vital  bond  of  union  between 
the  god  and  his  worshippers.  Among  other  peoples  the  effort 
for  union  with  a  deity  appears  oftentimes  in  forms  strange  and 
fanatical ;  in  Greece  that  phase  of  religion  is  ordinarily  kept 
in  the  background  by  the  national  sense  of  proportion.  The  con- 
nection with  the  gods  which  was  secured  by  worship  was  primarily 
a  social  matter,  the  same  sort  of  bond  which  united  any  two 
persons  in  the  common  pleasure  of  a  banquet.  Music  and 
dance  together  with  food  and  wine  emphasized  the  belief  that 
the  god  and  his  worshippers  were  united  in  one  society ;  and 
the  connection  with  the  gods  then  became  a  matter  of  actual 
experience. 

The  meaning  of  a  religion  depends  primarily  on  the  need  it 
satisfies.  It  may  be  essentially  spiritual  and  mystic  in  its  answer 
to  vague  longings,  or  ethical  in  that  it  expresses  a  stern  command 
of  duty ;  it  may  be  aesthetic,  giving  form  to  ideals  of  beauty,  or 
philosophical,  when  men  seek  for  absolute  truth  as  their  pearl  of 
great  price.  All  these  tendencies  appear,  the  ethical  least  of  them 
all,  in  Greek  religion.  Its  most  important  appeal  to  men,  how- 
ever, was  on  the  social  side.  Facing  strange  facts  and  mighty 
forces,  the  Greek  sought  for  a  sympathetic  chord  in  them  ;  and  he 
found  it  as  his  imagination  peopled  the  world  with  gods.  To  use 
the  happy  phrase  of  Mr.  Dickinson,  religion  "  made  him  at  home 
in  the  world." 


38  GREEK   RELIGION 

"  All  that  is  unintelligible  in  the  world  .  .  .  has  been  drawn,  as  it  were,  from 
its  dark  retreat,  clothed  in  radiant  form,  and  presented  to  the  mind  as  a  glori- 
fied image  of  itself.  Every  phenomenon  of  nature,  night  and  '  rosy-fingered 
dawn,'  earth  and  sun,  winds,  rivers  and  seas,  sleep  and  death  —  all  have  been 
transformed  into  divine  and  conscious  agents,  to  be  propitiated  by  prayer, 
interpreted  by  divination,  and  comprehended  by  passions  and  desires  iden- 
tical with  those  which  stir  and  control  mankind."  .  .  .  "There  were  other 
powers,  equally  strange,  dwelling  in  man's  own  heart.  .  .  .  With  these  too  he 
felt  the  need  to  make  himself  at  home,  and  these  too,  to  satisfy  his  need,  he 
shaped  into  creatures  like  himself.  ...  In  Aphrodite,  mother  of  Eros,  he 
incarnated  the  passion,  of  love,  ...  in  Ares  the  lust  of  war,  in  Athene  wis- 
dom, in  Apollo  music  and  the  arts."  And  thus  religion  made  him  "  at  home 
in  the  world." l 

It  is  perhaps  necessary  to  repeat  the  statement  that  the  Greeks 
did  not  worship  natural  objects.  Where  we  interpret  the  facts 
and  processes  of  nature  as  a  mechanical  system,  the  Greek  made 
them  part  of  his  social  system.  Danger  was  made  intelligible, 
solitude  filled  with  consciousness,  human  life  enriched  with  new 
meaning,  in  that  the  world  became  a  great  society  in  which  man 
might  find  his  true  home. 

1  G.  Lowes  Dickinson,  The  Greek  View  of  Life,  p.  7,  8. 


PART    I 

FORMS   OF    RELIGIOUS    BELIEF    AND   PRAC- 
TICE  IN    ANCIENT   GREECE 

CHAPTER   I 
REVELATION   AND   INSPIRATION 

1.  The  Greek  Conception  of  Revelation.  —  The  fundamental 
difference  between  the  conception  of  revelation  in  Greek  religion 
and  in  Christianity  lies  in  the  fact  that  the  Greeks,  like  most  other 
races,  assumed  the  existence  of  the  gods,  formed  their  notions  of 
the  divine  character  by  making'the  gods  in  their  own  image,  and 
looked  to  special  revelation  only  as  the  source  of  practical  guid- 
ance.1 When  a  colony  was  to  be  founded,  the  god  at  Delphi 
would  be  consulted  as  to  the  best  time  and  the  best  place ;  the 
omens  for  battle  must  be  favorable,  or  the  battle  was  delayed ; 
the  sick  and  suffering  looked  for  divine  direction  as  to  means  of 
cure ;  a  sneeze  or  a  chance  word  expressed  the  approval  of  the 
gods,  while  an  ominous  dream  deterred  or  encouraged  the  dreamer 
in  his  undertakings.  Though  signs  and  prophets  and  oracles 
were  not  regarded  as  revealing  the  nature  of  the  gods,  they  yet 
were  part  of  the  apparatus  of  religion.  In  the  history  of  Greek 
religion  they  are  to  be  considered  because  of  the  light  they  throw 
incidentally  on  the  character  of  the  gods,  the  religious  nature  of 
man,  and  the  divine  government  of  the  world,  as  these  were 
conceived  by  the  Greeks. 

For  the  study  of  religious  antiquities  it  is  convenient  to  divide 
the  subject  according  to  the  nature  of  the  signs ;  signs  from  birds 
or  dreams  which  occur  without  human  intervention  would  belong 

1  See  Introduction,  p.  28. 
39 


40  GREEK   RELIGION 

to  one  class,  signs  sought  by  consulting  the  entrails  of  a  victim  or 
answers  sought  from  an  oracle  would  belong  to  a  second  class. 
But  from  the  standpoint  of  religion  this  difference  is  merely 
accidental.  It  is  more  important  to  note  how  the  knowledge  of 
the  future  is  obtained,  than  whether  it  comes  sought  or  unsought. 
Signs  in  the  external  world  presuppose  that  the  course  of  nature 
and  of  human  history  is  in  the  hands  of  the  gods,  directed  by 
them  in  such  wise  that  learned  men  can  ascertain  their  will  from 
it.  On  the  other  hand,  the  mind  of  the  dreamer,  the  prophet, 
the  Pythian  priestess,  is  immediately  influenced  by  the  will  of  the 
gods,  so  that  under  this  inspiration  the  human  mind  gains  new 
power  to  see  what  would  otherwise  be  hidden.  Divination  by 
signs  was  called  by  the  Stoics l  "  artificial "  or  scientific,  in  that 
success  rested  upon  a  developed  science  of  signs.  Inspiration  of 
prophets  was  called  natural,  or  "  without  art,"  for  the  results  came 
directly  without  any  intervention  of  human  learning.  The  history 
of  religion  accepts  this  division,  not  because  of  the  presence  or 
absence  of  human  science,  but  because  the  presupposition  as  to 
the  working  of  the  gods  is  different  in  the  two  cases. 

NOTE.  —  In  this  chapter,  as  in  the  chapter  on  sacrifice  and  worship,  the 
data  from  the  Homeric  poems  are  separated  to  some  extent  from  the  data 
obtained  from  other  authors.  The  reader  should  bear  in  mind  that  this  course 
is  not  followed  because  the  Homeric  poems  are  more  important  than  other 
sources,  or  because  they  represent  an  earlier  stage  in  the  development  of  reli- 
gion. The  Greeks  themselves  assigned  a  unique  place  to  the  epic;  sometimes 
they  consciously  modified  their  religious  views  to  accord  with  it;  far  more  often 
they  unconsciously  yielded  to  its  influence.  Again,  on  the  other  hand,  the 
nature  of  the  poetry  is  such  that  data  from  this  source  can  only  be  used  with 
caution  and  with  allowance  for  some  special  peculiarities.  Under  these 
circumstances  it  has  seemed  wise  to  separate  the  discussion  of  the  epic, 
wherever  possible,  from  the  general  treatment  under  each  theme. 

2.  Theophany  in  the  Homeric  Poems.  —  In  the  later  historical 
period  visions  of  the  gods,  except  in  dreams,  are  not  supposed 

1  (Plutarch)  De  vita  Homeri,  212,  p.  456;  Cicero,  De  divinatione,  I.  18/34, 
49/119;  2.  11/226. 


REVELATION   AND    INSPIRATION  41 

to  occur ;  the  tendency  toward  what  was  rational  or  "  matter  of 
fact "  led  the  Greek  mind  to  look  in  other  directions  for  the 
manifestation  of  the  divine  will.  The  epic,  starting  with  the 
assumption  that  its  heroes  were  separated  from  the  gods  by  only 
two  or  three  generations,  made  large  use  of  direct  visions  of  the 
gods.  Granted  that  Aeneas  is  the  son  of  Aphrodite,  Achilles  of 
Thetis,  Sarpedon  of  Zeus,  granted  that  the  line  of  Priam  in  Troy, 
of  Idomeneus  in  Crete,  of  Agamemnon  in  Mycenae  is  to  be  traced 
directly  back  to  Zeus,  it  is  clear  that  in  the  "  good  old  times  "  no 
barrier  separated  men  and  gods.  As  gods  had  so  recently  favored 
mortal  men  and  women  with  their  love,  so  in  the  time  of  the  siege 
of  Troy  they  watched  over  their  favorites  and  appeared  occasion- 
ally to  warn  them  of  danger  or  guide  them  in  perplexity.1 

"Not  to  all  men  do  the  gods  appear  visibly,"2  nor  do  all 
the  gods  deign  to  come  so  close  to  men.  Zeus  and  Hera, 
generally  Poseidon,  remain  on  Olympus ;  Iris  and  Hermes  are 
common  messengers  to  men,  while  Athena  and  Apollo  appear  at 
times  in  order  to  carry  out  their  plans  or  the  plans  of  Zeus.  In 
those  parts  of  the  poems  assigned  to  an  earlier  date,  the  gods 
appear  more  commonly  as  gods.  The  angry  Achilles  feels  the 
hand  of  Athena  on  his  auburn  hair  and  hears  her  rebuking  voice, 
just  as  later  he  hears  her  word  that  the  hour  has  come  for  him  to 
kill  Hector.3  Each  message  is  but  the  expression  of  Achilles'  own 
thought ;  the  goddess  is  felt  and  heard,  but  apparently  she  is 
not  seen  by  others  or  even  by  Achilles  himself.  Again  the  gods 
assume  the  form  of  a  man,  often  a  man  known  to  people  to  whom 
they  go.  Aphrodite  comes  as  an  old  woman,  Apollo  as  Agenor, 
Poseidon  as  Calchas ; 4  in  the  first  books  of  the  Odyssey  Athena 
comes  to  Telemachus  as  Mentes,  and  later  as  Mentor  accompanies 
him  on  his  journey.  This  type  of  theophany  plays  a  large  part 
especially  in  the  Odyssey.  Thirdly,  in  a  few  instances,  the  gods 
come  directly  on  to  the  battlefield ;  Aphrodite  is  wounded  by 
Diomedes  till  her  divine  blood  flows,  Ares  is  dazed  by  a  blow  of 

1  Odyssey,  3.  375  f.  8  Iliad,  i.  197;  22.  215. 

2  Odyssey,  16.  161.  4  Iliad,  3.  386;  21.  600;  13.  45. 


42  GREEK   RELIGION 

Athena,  Apollo  shouts  so  loud  as  to  frighten  back  the  Greeks.1 
This  third  type  may  be  dismissed  with  the  statement  that  the  gods 
are  made  ridiculous  to  amuse  the  poet's  audience.  The  second 
type  represents  a  successful  attempt  to  bring  the  gods  on  the 
stage  with  other  characters  of  the  epic  drama.  The  first  type 
alone  is  the  direct  expression  of  religious  feeling. 

The  study  of  all  such  appearances  of  the  gods  shows  that  this 
motif  of  the  epic  poet  did  have  its  basis  in  religion.  Except  as  his 
audience  believed  that  the  gods  were  really  near  to  men,  that 
the  gods  did  care  for  individual  men  and  could  bless  or  injure 
them  by  changing  the  course  of  events,  it  would  have  been  idle 
for  the  poet  even  to  make  fun  of  the  gods  by  bringing  them  into 
his  song.  He  rarely  tried  to  make  the  gods  ridiculous ;  ordi- 
narily he  succeeded  in  his  effort  to  make  real  gods  genuine  actors 
in  his  story.  The  influence  of  the  epic  practice  is  seen  in  the 
Attic  drama,  where  occasionally  the  gods  are  brought  on  the  stage. 

3.  Signs  in  the  Ordinary  Coursa  of  Nature.  —  Except  in  the 
case  of  armies  preparing  for  battle,  signs  in  the  ordinary  course 
of  nature  were  more  important  than  signs  secured  by  divination. 
The  Greeks  paid  special  attention  to  meteorological  phenomena 
and  (in  earlier  times)  to  the  flight  of  birds.  In  the  Iliad  thunder 
and  lightning  indicated  the  will  of  Zeus,  god  of  the  sky.  Some- 
times the  occurrence  of  these  phenomena  caused  fear  to  both 
Greeks  and  Trojans ;  more  commonly  the  unsuccessful  side  was 
frightened,  the  successful  side  encouraged,  by  such  a  token  of 
the  presence  of  Zeus.2  A  thunderbolt  in  front  of  the  horses  of 
Diomedes  stopped  his  victorious  advance.3  Lightning  on  the 
right  hand  signified  definitely  the  favor  of  Zeus.4  The  only 
mention  of  thunder  as  a  sign  of  approval  is  when  Odysseus's 
prayer  for  a  favorable  sign  was  answered  by  a  thunderbolt.5  The 
same  causes  which  in  myth  made  the  thunderbolt  the  attribute 
of  Zeus,  led  the  epic  poets  to  emphasize  this  sign  of  the  presence 

1  Iliad,  5.  339  f. ;  21.  406  f. ;  4.  508.  8  Iliad,  8. 133. 

2  Iliad,  7.  478 ;  17.  595.  4  Iliad,  9.  236. 

6  Odyssey,  20.  100  f. 


REVELATION   AND   INSPIRATION  43 

and  favor  of  Zeus.  He  is  the  god  of  the  sky  and  the  divine  ruler 
of  the  world ;  naturally  he  signifies  his  will  to  man  by  phenomena 
in  the  sky.  It  is  not  entirely  clear  whether  the  epic  poet  made 
this  deduction  himself,  or  whether  there  was  in  some  localities 
a  vivid  belief  in  the  significance  of  thunder  and  lightning.  The 
Athenian  sacred  embassy  to  Delphi  waited  for  lightning  from 
Zeus  Astrapaios  before  setting  out,  and  Xenophon  alludes  to 
lightning  as  a  veritable  sign ; '  other  references  to  it  are  almost 
wholly  lacking  in  later  literature. 

Other  meteorological  phenomena  influenced  men  who  were 
rated  as  superstitious.  An  eclipse  of  the  moon  so  affected  Nicias 
that  he  did  not  withdraw  the  Athenian  army  before  Syracuse ; 
Pelopidas,  on  the  other  hand,  was  not  himself  influenced  by  an 
eclipse  of  the  sun.2  Some  claimed  that  a  meteor  foretold  the 
Spartan  victory  at  Aegospotami,  and  that  later  a  comet  predicted 
the  downfall  of  Sparta  from  her  primacy  in  Greece.3  At  Athens 
the  assembly  was  dissolved  whenever  rain  indicated  that  Zeus 
was  not  propitious.  An  earthquake  in  Delos  is  said  to  have 
been  the  forerunner  of  the  Peloponnesian  war.4  It  is  clear  that 
only  the  superstitious  paid  much  attention  to  this  class  of  signs ; 
men  generally  looked  elsewhere  to  ascertain  the  will  of  the  gods. 
Further,  it  should  not  be  forgotten  that  the  science  of  astrology 
found  little  or  no  place  in  Greece. 

Nor  did  other  portents  or  prodigies  receive  great  emphasis 
with  thinking  men.  Herodotus  and  Plutarch  collected  stories  of 
portentous  marvels,  a  priestess  who  grew  a  beard,  fish  that 
leaped  in  the  frying-pan,  divine  images  that  moved  or  shed 
drops  of  perspiration, — stories  uncommon  enough  to  show  a 
general  absence  of  superstition.5  The  seer  Lampon  prophesied 
the  future  greatness  of  Pericles  from  a  ram  with  one  horn,  but 
Anaxagoras,  cutting  open  the  head,  showed  why  only  one  horn 

1  Xenophon,  Apol.  12  ;  cp.  Bacchylides,  17.  55. 

2  Plutarch,  Nicias,  23,  p.  538 ;  De  super stitione,  8,  p.  169 ;  Pelopidat,  31,  p.  295. 
8  Plutarch,  Lysander,  12,  p.  439;  Diodorus  Siculus,  15.  50. 

4  Thucydides,  2.  8.  3. ;  Herodotus,  6.  98;  Xenophon,  Hell.  3.  2.  24. 

6  Herodotus,  i.  175,  9.  120;  Plutarch,  Nicias,  13,  p.  531 ;    Timoleon,  12,  p.  241. 


44  GREEK   RELIGION 

had  grown.1  Such  a  scientific  spirit  was  not  favorable  to  belief 
in  portents. 

4.  Signs  in  Nature  :  Birds.  —  In  the  Homeric  poems  the  most 
important  method  for  learning  the  will  of  the  gods,  was  to  observe 
the  flight  of  birds ;  the  most  important  function  of  the  prophet 
was  to  interpret  signs  from  birds.  Their  freedom  from  human 
control,  their  access  to  the  sky  where  lived  the  gods,  the  con- 
nection which  was  assumed  between  particular  birds  and  particular 
gods  —  all  contributed  to  their  significance.  Not,  of  course,  that 
all  birds  were  harbingers  of  future  events ;  it  was  the  eagle  of 
Zeus,  the  hawk  of  Apollo,  the  heron  flying  at  night,  which  intimated 
the  plans  of  the  gods.2  Often  the  mere  presence  of  an  eagle 
on  the  right  hand  (toward  the  east)  was  enough,  especially 
when  it  came  in  answer  to  prayer.3  The  eagle  with  a  goose  in 
its  talons  or  the  hawk  with  a  dove  signified  success  when  it  appeared 
on  the  right ;  yet  even  such  a  sign  might  be  disregarded  when 
the  course  of  events  tended  the  other  way.4  That  Troy  should 
be  taken  in  the  tenth  year  was  indicated  by  the  sparrow  and 
her  eight  young  devoured  by  a  serpent.5  At  times  the  act  of 
the  bird  was  a  definite  type  of  the  event,  as  when  Apollo's 
hawk  is  seen  scattering  the  feathers  of  a  dove,  or  when  the 
eagle  of  Zeus  kills  the  geese  eating  grain  in  Odysseus's  hall.6 
Calchas  and  Halitherses,  who  interpret  such  signs,  are  the 
great  seers  of  the  poems.  Other  evidence  may  be  brought  to 
show  that  here  the  epic  belief  is  based  on  real  practice,  while 
it  can  hardly  be  doubted  that  the  emphasis  laid  on  bird-signs 
in  the  epic  tended  to  increase  the  importance  attached  to  them 
in  fact. 

Prometheus,  in  the  play  of  Aeschylus,  claims  to  have  taught 
men  to  discern  the  flight  of  taloned  birds,  which  are  favorable, 
which  unfavorable,  and  to  understand  their  habits,  their  quarrels, 

1  Plutarch,  Pericles,  6,  p.  154. 

a  Odyssey,  2.  146 ;  15.  525,  532 ;   Iliad,  24.  315 ;  10.  274. 

*  Iliad,  13.  821 ;  24.  292;   Odyssey,  24.  311. 

*  Odyssey,  15.  160;  20.  242;  Iliad,  8.  247;   12.  200  f. 

*  Iliad,  2.  308  f.  «  Odyssey,  15.  525  f. ;  19.  536  fc 


REVELATION   AND    INSPIRATION  45 

their  mating.1  The  eagle,  the  vulture,  and  the  crow  were  specially 
significant,  rather  for  their  dominant  cruel  habits  than  for  any 
connection  with  one  particular  god.  Their  appearance  in  the 
east,  or  their  flight  toward  the  east,  was  in  itself  favorable.2  Seers 
like  Teiresias  are  said  to  have  had  a  regular  place  where  they 


FIG.  5.  —  ATHENIAN  RED-FIGURED  VASE  PAINTING 
Above  a  four-horse  chariot  (driven  by  a  goddess)  appears  an  eagle  flying. 

might  observe  the  appearance  or  the  conflicts  of  birds  of  prey.3 
Two  eagles  tearing  a  hare  with  its  young  signified  for  the  Greeks 
the  utter  destruction  of  Troy  by  the  army  which  Agamemnon  and 
Menelaus  led ;  similarly  the  Persian  queen  Atossa  feared  for  the 
great  army  of  Xerxes  when  she  saw  a  hawk  pursuing  an  eagle  and 
plucking  feathers  from  its  head  as  the  eagle  flew  toward  the  shrine 
of  Apollo.4  While  omens  from  birds  were  undoubtedly  important 
in  some  localities  in  early  times,  in  the  greater  days  of  Greece  they 
became  rather  a  part  of  the  poet's  apparatus.  The  increasing 
importance  of  oracles  and  of  an  organized,  unified  system  of  reli- 

1  Aeschylus,  Prom.  488  f. 

2  Cp.  Plato,  Leg.  6,  p.  760  D. 

3  Sophocles,  Ant.  999 ;  Euripides,  Bacch.  347. 
*  Aeschylus,  Agam.  114  f.;  Pers.  205  f. 


46  GREEK  RELIGION 

gious  practice  tended  to  eclipse  the  simple  observance  of  natural 
signs. 

5.  Minor  Signs  in  Nature :  Chance  Words,  etc.  —  Just  as  light- 
ning and  the  flight  of  birds  suggest  the  intervention  of  the  gods, 
for  here  human  life  comes  in  contact  with  what  cannot  be  fore- 
seen or  calculated,  so  the  rumor  which  starts  no  one  knows  where, 
and  gains  in  certainty  and  definiteness  no  one  knows  how,  comes 
to  be  regarded  as  the  messenger  of  Zeus  to  man.  When  Agamem- 
non proposed  to  test  the  temper  of  his  army  by  suggesting  that 
they  abandon  the  siege  of  Troy  and  return  home,  it  was  Rumor, 
messenger  of  Zeus,  which  urged  them  to  accept  his  suggestion ; 
Athena,  in  the  form  of  Mentes,  bade  Telemachus  look  to  Rumor 
for  news  of  his  father ;  so  Rumor  spread  the  word  that  the  suitors 
had  been  killed.1 

Again,  the  chance  word,  suggesting  to  the  hearer  something 
totally  different  from  what  was  intended  by  the  speaker,  was  often 
regarded  as  a  sign.  When  Zeus  answered  Odysseus's  prayer  for  a 
sign  by  sending  a  thunderbolt,  Odysseus  overheard  the  comment 
of  women  grinding  at  the  mill.2  It  was  mere  comment  for  them 
to  say  that  Zeus  was  about  to  punish  the  suitors ;  to  Odysseus  it 
seemed  that  Zeus  had  first  sent  the  thunderbolt,  then  had  given 
him  the  interpretation  of  its  meaning.  Such  chance  words  or 
chance  happenings  seem  always  to  have  influenced  superstitious 
persons  in  Greece.  Cyrus  hailed  it  as  an  omen  when  he  was  told 
that  the  watchword  was  "  Preserver  Zeus  and  victory  "  ;  the  Greeks 
were  encouraged  to  fight  at  Mycale  by  the  name  of  the  Samian 
messenger,  Hegesistratus,  "  Army-leader  "  ;  and  when  Alexander 
forced  the  Pythian  priestess  to  mount  the  tripod  at  an  unusual 
time,  her  exclamation  that  he  could  not  be  resisted  was  all  the 
oracle  he  asked  for.3  Pausanias  speaks  of  oracles  which  depended 
on  the  first  chance  word  one  heard  after  sacrificing  to  the  god.4 

1  Iliad,  2.  93 ;   Odyssey,  i.  282 ;  24.  413. 

2  Odyssey,  20.  105  ;  cp.  2.  35  ;   18.  117. 

8  Xenophon,  Anab.  i.  8.  16;   Herodotus,  9.  91 ;  Plutarch,  Alexander,  14,  p.  671. 
4  Pausanias,  7.  22.  3 ;  9.  i  j.  7, 


REVELATION    AND    INSPIRATION  47 

Such  an  interpretation  of  chance  words  does  not  seem  so  strange, 
when  one  recalls  that  not  many  years  ago  the  Bible  was  used  in 
much  the  same  way  :  to  obtain  guidance  the  book  was  opened  at 
random  and  perhaps  in  the  last  word  on  the  page  was  sought  a  sug- 
gestion of  the  right  course.  An  example  of  chance  events  re- 
garded as  signs  occurs  in  Plutarch  : l  an  army  advancing  to  meet 
the  enemy  were  discouraged  by  the  sight  of  asses  laden  with  pars- 
ley, for  parsley  was  used  to  make  crowns  for  the  dead.  A  sneeze, 
on  the  other  hand,  was  favorable  ;  as  Xenophon  spoke  of  the  hope 
of  safety,  a  soldier  sneezed,  and  the  army  accepted  it  as  a  good 
omen  from  Zeus.2 

The  theory  of  these  signs,  in  so  far  as  any  theory  may  be  assumed, 
is  definitely  religious.  It  is  assumed  that  all  nature  is  under  the 
direction  of  the  gods,  and  that  the  gods  wish  to  guide  men  by  giv- 
ing them  some  indications  of  their  favor  or  disapproval.  Omens 
are  sought  in  events  not  easily  explained  by  natural  causes ;  they 
are  vague,  in  order  that  responsibility  may  still  be  left  with  men  ; 
their  range  increases  rapidly  with  superstitious  men ;  the  sense  of 
their  reality  and  importance,  however,  rests  on  the  deep-set  belief 
that  the  gods  wish  to  guide  men  by  signs  in  nature.  Because  the 
gods  are  consistent,  experience  is  the  source  of  principles  by 
which  signs  can  be  correctly  interpreted. 

6.  Divination  by  means  of  Sacrificial  Victims.  —  In  the  fifth 
and  fourth  centuries  divination  from  the  flight  of  birds  had  all  but 
passed  out  of  use  and  signs  in  nature  were  only  occasionally  noted  ; 
the  will  of  the  gods  was  ascertained  by  the  consultation  of  oracles 
or  by  divination  in  connection  with  sacrificial  victims.  Whether 
this  means  of  divination  existed  in  early  times  and  was  passed 
over  by  the  epic,3  or  was  introduced  later ;  whether  it  was  devel- 
oped from  the  Greek  religious  consciousness,  or  adopted  from 
other  nations,  it  is  not  easy  to  say.  In  any  case  its  meaning  is 

1  Plutarch,  Timoleon,  26,  p.  248. 

2  Xenophon,  Anab.  3.  2.  9 ;  cp.  Aristophanes,  Aves,  720. 

8  The  word  fluoo-itdo?  (e.g.  Iliad,  24.  221)  according  to  the  usage  of  the  epic 
seems  to  mean  no  more  than  "  attendant  at  the  sacrifice." 


48  GREEK   RELIGION 

found  in  the  belief  that  animals  sacrificed  to  the  gods  must  be 
perfect ;  if  they  come  unwillingly  to  the  altar,  if  the  inner  parts 
are  deformed  or  discolored,  if  the  sacrifice  does  not  burn  properly, 
then  it  is  a  bad  omen,  for  the  gods  are  displeased. 

On  this  theory  any  sacrifice  may  have  prophetic  import.     The 
priest,  sometimes  a  special  seer,  is  on  the  lookout  for  tokens  sig- 


FIG.  6.  — ATHENIAN  RED-FIGURED  VASE  PAINTING  (Gotha) 

A  servant  carefully  watches  the  roasting  meat,  while  Nike  fills  the  priest's  phiale 
for  a  libation,  in  the  presence  of  Apollo  with  a  cithara. 

nificant  of  the  divine  will.  If  the  bull  "  comes  boldly  to  the  altar 
as  though  led  of  the  gods,"  and  perhaps  bows  its  own  head  to  the 
blow,1  heaven  favors  the  worshippers  ;  even  if  the  result  is  brought 
about  by  the  skill  of  the  priest,  it  is  interpreted  in  the  same  way ; 
but  for  an  animal  to  die  on  the  way  to  the  altar  forebodes  some 
dreadful  evil.2  Then  after  the  victim  is  opened,  the  character  of 

1  Aeschylus,  Agam.  1298;  cp.  Plutarch,  Lucullus,  24,  p.  507;  Paton-Hicks,  In- 
scriptions of  Cos,  37,  1.  21. 

2  Schol.  on  Aristophanes,  Pax,  960;  Plutarch,  Pyrrhus,  6,  p.  386. 


REVELATION    AND    INSPIRATION  49 

the  liver  and  gall  bladder  is  most  significant.  A  sound  liver, 
smooth,  of  good  color,  and  with  well-shaped  lobes,  means  that  the 
sacrifice  is  acceptable  and  that  the  god  is  ready  to  grant  the  wishes 
of  the  worshipper.1  As  the  sacrifice  is  burning  on  the  altar,  the 
manner  in  which  the  flame  envelops  the  moist  meat  also  indicates 
the  attitude  of  the  gods ; 2  when 

"  Hephaestus's  flame 

Shone  not  from  out  the  offering;   but  there  oozed 
Upon  the  ashes,  trickling  from  the  hones, 
A  moisture,  and  it  smouldered,  and  it  spat, 
And,  lo !  the  gall  was  scattered  to  the  air, 
And  forth  from  out  the  fat  that  wrapped  them  round 
The  thigh  bones  fell," 

then  "  evil  falls  upon  the  State." 3  The  bursting  of  the  gall  blad- 
der, and  the  behavior  of  the  bones  at  the  base  of  the  tail  (oo-<£ik), 
were  especially  significant.4  Many  of  the  passages  that  may  be 
cited  in  regard  to  divination  from  sacrificial  victims  do  not  refer 
to  sacrifices  offered  for  this  purpose,  but  to  occurrences  in  con- 
nection with  the  regular  worship  (Owrid).  Now  the  priest  himself, 
now  the  king  or  general  interpreted  such  omens,  or  again  a  seer 
might  be  needed.5  The  explanation  of  the  procedure  is  very  sim- 
ple :  since  an  imperfect  sacrifice  must  fail  of  its  end,  the  gods 
need  only  direct  the  course  of  events  so  that  the  animal  was 
imperfect  or  the  fire  did  not  burn  properly,  when  they  desired 
to  indicate  their  disapproval  of  the  worshipper  or  his  plans. 

What  has  been  said  of  ordinary  sacrifices  applies  with  all  the 
more  force  to  special  sacrifices  in  the  presence  of  danger.  Before 
a  battle,  a  dangerous  march,  or  any  difficult  undertaking,  it  was 
the  practice  of  the  Greeks  to  offer  (in  addition  to  the  regular 
sacrifice)  a  peculiar  sacrifice  to  propitiate  the  possible  wrath  of 

1  Aeschylus,  Prom.^j,  f. ;  Xenophon,  #<?//.  3. 4.  15;  Plutarch,  Cimon,  18,  p.  490. 
Cp.  Virgil,  Aen.  4.  64. 

2  Aeschylus,  Prom.  498 ;  Euripides,  Phoen.  1255  f.  and  scholion. 

8  Sophocles,  Ant.  1006  f.,  trans.  Plumptre;  Apollonius  Rhodius,  i.  436  fc 

4  Sophocles,  Ant.  1009;  Schol.  on  Aristophanes,  Pax,  1053. 

5  Xenophon,  Anab.  2.  2.  3 ;  5.  5.  3. 

GREEK    RELIGION 4 


50  GREEK   RELIGION 

the  gods  and  secure  their  special  favor  (o-^ayia).1  The  marks  of 
divine  approval  or  disapproval  were  the  same  as  in  connection 
with  ordinary  sacrifices ;  only,  for  the  very  reason  that  these  were 
propitiatory  rites  in  the  face  of  danger,  the  general  and  the  seer 
watched  them  with  so  much  the  greater  care.  The  importance 
of  this  method  of  divination,  especially  in  the  case  of  an  army,  lay 
in  the  fact  that  it  furnished  a  speedy  and  reliable  means  of  ascer- 
taining the  purposes  of  the  gods  before  battle.  The  position  of 
the  seer  in  the  army  was  only  less  important  than  that  of  the  gen- 
eral ;  the  seer's  advice  could  be  rejected,  but,  as  at  the  battle  of 
Plataea,  it  was  customary  to  suffer  some  losses  rather  than  to  send 
the  soldiers  into  battle  without  the  belief  that  the  gods  were  on 
their  side.2  In  case  the  omens  were  unfavorable,  the  attack  might 
be  given  up  entirely.3  However,  the  practice  grew  up  of  repeat- 
ing these  sacrifices  until  the  omens  were  favorable.4  Of  course  it 
was  always  conceivable  that  the  seer  might  be  mistaken  ;  he  might 
even  wish  to  deceive  the  general  and  ruin  his  plans,  so  that  it  was 
desirable  for  the  general  himself  to  know  something  of  hieroscopy/1 
The  theory  of  these  special  sacrifices  was  very  simple.  In  case 
any  god  or  hero  were  angry  with  the  army  or  offended  by  some 
neglect,  he  would  cause  them  disaster.  Accordingly,  propitiatory 
sacrifices  were  offered,  in  the  belief  that  if  the  sacrifice  were 
accepted,  the  general  might  be  confident  that  the  gods  would 
help  him.  Then  the  sacrifice  could  be  repeated,  for  unfavorable 
omens  might  mean  only  that  the  time  had  not  come  which  the 
gods  wished  to  designate  as  favorable.  It  is  a  narrow  line  that 
separates  religiousness  from  superstition  at  this  point ;  still,  it  is 
probably  fair  to  regard  the  practice  of  divination  by  sacrifice  in 
the  fifth  century  B.C.  as  based  on  a  real  faith  in  divine  intervention. 

1  Herodotus,  9.  41 ;  9.  61  f. ;  Xenophon,  Anab.  i.  8.  15  ;  6.  5.  21. 

2  Xenophon,  Laced,  rep.  13.  3;  Pausanias,  3.  n.  6;   Herodotus,  9.  33  f. ;  Xeno- 
phon, Hell.  4.  6.  10. 

8  Herodotus,  6.  76;  Thucydides,  5.  54. 

4  Herodotus,  g.  61 ;    Xenophon,  Anab.  6.  4.  17 ;  Hell.  3.  i.  17 ;    Plutarch,  Aristi- 
des,  17-18,  p.  329. 

8  Xenophon,  Anab.  5.  6.  29;   Cyrop.  i.  6.  2;  Plato,  Laches,  199  A. 


REVELATION   AND    INSPIRATION  51 

7.  Inspiration  :  (a)  Dreams.  —  In  contrast  with  the  revelation 
of  the  divine  will  through  signs  in  the  external  world,  we  find  a 
knowledge  of  the  future  that  is  gained  by  inspiration.  Gods  differ 
from  men  in  that  their  vision  is  not  necessarily  limited  by  the  here 
and  the  now  ;  the  gods  are  but  human  spirits  with  superior  powers  ; 
it  is  a  natural  inference  that  occasionally  men  may  see  beyond  the 
limitations  of  the  present  into  the  future.  Such  superhuman  gifts, 
when  they  are  found  in  human  beings,  are  naturally  connected 
with  those  classes  of  mental  phenomena  that  are  not  readily 
explained.  In  sleep  the  ordinary  channels  of  perception  seem  to 
be  closed ;  the  mind  seems  to  wander  at  liberty ;  in  Greece  no 
less  than  elsewhere  dreams  were  regarded  as  portending  future 
events.  Occasionally  an  individual,  a  blind  man  perhaps  or  some 
one  endowed  with  unusually  sensitive  nature,  is  credited  with  a 
knowledge  not  possessed  by  the  common  crowd.  Or,  again,  the 
apparatus  of  religion  is  organized  to  obtain  responses  to  the  ques- 
tioner, and  we  have  the  oracle.  I  use  the  word  inspiration  to 
cover  these  three  types,  not  because  the  Greeks  had  any  such 
clear-cut  belief  as  the  early  Hebrews  that  a  divine  spirit  overmastered 
the  mind  of  the  prophet,  but  rather  because  we  have  no  better 
word  to  indicate  that  we  are  dealing  with  a  knowledge  of  the 
future  which  is  assigned  to  the  mind  itself,  independent  of  any 
events  in  the  external  world. 

Just  because  it  is  so  natural  to  regard  dreams  as  portentous, 
because  there  is  nothing  "magical"  about  them,  they  find  a  con- 
siderable place  in  the  Homeric  poems.  Their  value  is  explained 
by  ascribing  them  to  the  gods,  their  treacherousness  by  saying 
that  they  are  often  sent  to  deceive.  "  Twain  are  the  gates  of 
shadowy  dreams,  the  one  is  fashioned  of  horn  and  one  of  ivory. 
Such  dreams  as  pass  through  the  portals  of  sawn  ivory  are  deceit- 
ful, and  bear  tidings  that  are  unfulfilled.  But  the  dreams  that  come 
forth  through  the  gates  of  polished  horn  bring  a  true  issue,  whoso- 
ever of  mortals  beholds  them." l  To  make  dreams  concrete  and 
definite,  they  are  described  as  visions  in  sleep.  Achilles  has  a 
*  Odyssey,  19.  562  f.  trans.  Butcher  and  Lang. 


52  GREEK   RELIGION 

vision  of  Patroclus  urging  the  burial  of  his  body ;  Penelope  sees 
her  sister  standing  over  her  and  bidding  her  cease  her  tears,  or, 
again,  she  sees  a  sign  of  birds  and  hears  its  explanation.1  In 
some  instances  the  gods  appear  to  men  in  dreams,  just  as  they 
appear  to  waking  men,  ordinarily  in  the  form  of  some  friend 
whose  presence  is  not  unexpected.2  Or  the  dream  may  take  the 
form  of  a  sign,  such  as  waking  men  see ;  so  Penelope  dreams  that 
an  eagle  slays  the  geese  devouring  grain  at  her  hearth.3  In  both 
forms  of  dreams,  great  stress  is  laid  on  the  feeling  that  they  are 
real  visions. 

In  later  times  Greek  students  of  nature  recognized  that  dreams 
were  often  determined  by  the  state  of  the  body ;  Aristotle  *  went 
so  far  as  to  say  definitely  that  dreams  do  not  come  from  the  gods  ; 
in  general,  however,  men  maintained  that  some  dreams  had  super- 
natural meaning.  Just  as  the  Homeric  poems  distinguished  true 
and  false  dreams,  so  Aeschylus  represents  Prometheus  as  teaching 
men  to  distinguish  what  were  true  and  what  false.5  The  science 
of  dreams,  thus  initiated  by  Prometheus,  grew  in  importance; 
Lysimachus,  nephew  of  the  great  Aristeides,  was  but  one  of  a  host 
of  men  who  expounded  dreams  for  the  superstitious ;  and  in 
course  of  time  elaborate  treatises  on  the  subject  were  published, 
some  of  which  are  still  extant.6  Although  interpreters  of  dreams 
were  sometimes  classed  with  seers  and  prophets  as  men  gifted  by 
the  gods  with  superhuman  insight,  the  more  general  view  was 
that  they  were  students  of  the  science  of  dreams  who  interpreted 
dreams  on  the  basis  of  experience. 

In  general  the  dreams  recorded  in  Greek  literature  are,  like 
Penelope's  dream  of  the  slaughtered  geese,  simply  signs  appearing 
in  sleep.  When  Xenophon  dreamed  that  lightning  from  Zeus 
struck  his  father's  house,  it  was  a  sign  which  he  could  inter- 
pret either  as  favorable  or  unfavorable.  The  mother  of  Phalaris 

1  Iliad,  23.  65  ;   Odyssey,  4.  796  f. ;   19.  535  f. 

2  Cp.  the  second  type  of  theophany,  supra,  p.  41. 

8  Odyssey,  19.  536  f.  4  Aristotle,  De  insomnia,  2. 

»  Iliad,  i.  63 ;  2.  6;  cp.  Odyssey,  19.  561 ;  ao.  90 ;  Aeschylus,  Prom,  485  f.      •  . 

6  Hippocrates,  i.  633,  De  insomniis ;  Artemidorus,  Oneir, 


REVELATION    AND    INSPIRATION  53 

dreamed  that  an  image  of  Hermes  in  the  house  poured  out  blood 
from  a  cup,  and  the  whole  house  boiled  with  blood,  —  a  sign  of 
her  son's  life  of  cruelty.1  Socrates  inferred  the  day  of  his  death 
from  the  dream  of  a  woman  quoting  Homer,  "  on  the  third  day 
thou  shalt  come  to  fertile  Phthia  "  ;  dreams  also  foretold  by  signs 
to  Polycrates  and  to  Cimon  that  they  were  about  to  die.2 

The  explanation  of  dreams  offered  by  the  Greeks  is  more 
important  for  the  student  of  religion  than  their  form  or  content. 
Nor  is  he  interested  in  the  mythical  statements  of  the  poets,  that 
they  are  children  of  Night  or  of  Earth.3  In  Homer  dreams  are 
sent  by  direct  act  of  the  greater  gods.  That  the  divine  origin  of 
dreams  is  denied  by  Aristotle,  and  affirmed  of  some  dreams  by 
Herophilus,4  indicates  that  the  view  continued  to  be  held  in  later 
times.  The  more  general  belief  is  presented  in  a  striking  frag- 
ment of  Pindar  ;  speaking  of  the  soul,  the  "  image  of  life  "  which 
alone  continues  to  exist  after  death,  he  establishes  its  immortality 
on  the  ground  that  this  "  alone  is  from  the  gods ;  it  sleeps  while 
the  limbs  of  the  body  are  active,  but  when  they  sleep  it  gives  in 
dreams  clear  knowledge  of  future  joys  and  troubles."5  Plato 
makes  large  place  for  dreams  in  which  man's  lower  nature,  his 
passions  and  desires,  are  controlling,  while  reason  is  inactive ;  at 
the  same  time  he  maintains  that  the  man  in  whom  reason  is  wont 
to  rule  may  have  the  power  of  divination  when  sleep  frees  the 
soul  from  the  bonds  of  the  body.6  Such  became  the  widely 
current  view  of  Greek  thinkers.  The  body  is  a  hindrance  or 
limitation  to  the  divine  spirit  which  inhabits  it.  In  death  the 
limitation  disappears;  in  sleep,  as  at  the  moment  of  death,  the 
soul  feels  this  limitation  far  less,  a.r\A  can  recall  the  past  or  foresee 
the  future  with  clear  vision.7  Dreams  and  prophetic  inspiration 
rest  on  the  same  basis. 

1  Cicero,  De  divin,  i.  23/46. 

2  Plato,  Crito,  44  B;  Herodotus,  3.  124;  Plutarch,  Cimon,  18,  p.  490. 
8  Hesiod,  Theog.  211;  Euripides,  Iph.  Taur.  1262. 

4  Plutarch,  De  placitis,  5.  2,  p.  904  F. 

6  Pindar,  Frag.  108  (Bergk) ;  cp.  Aeschylus,  Eum.  104. 

6  Plato,  Polltia,  gt  571  C  ;    Timaeus,  71  D. 

7  Xenophon,  Cyrop.  8.  7.  21 ;  Cicero,  De  divin.  i.  30/63. 


54  GREEK   RELIGION 

8.  Inspiration :  (b)  Prophets.  —  In  the  Homeric  poems  the 
prophet  or  seer  is  a  man  gifted  by  the  gods  to  discern  things 
beyond  the  reach  of  ordinary  perception.  Teiresias  retains  in 
Hades  his  prophetic  gift  along  with  his  other  mental  powers,  by 
the  special  favor  of  Persephone ;  at  the  request  of  Odysseus  he 
warns  him  of  future  dangers,  recounts  the  state  of  affairs  at  Ithaca, 
and  indicates  the  means  of  propitiating  Poseidon.  His  prophetic 
power  consists  in  a  "  knowledge  of  the  ancient  divine  decrees," 
decrees  in  which  the  ultimate  safety  of  Odysseus  is  assured,  though 
the  fate  of  his  companions  depends  on  their  observance  of  the 
prophet's  warning. 1  Such  vision  of  what  is  far  away,  or  in  the 
future,  is  regarded  as  a  gift  of  the  gods.  Just  as  Hera  put  it  in  the 
mind  of  Agamemnon  to  stir  up  the  Greeks  against  the  enemy, 
so  the  immortals  made  known  the  future  to  their  favorites,  so 
Helenus  knew  the  purpose  of  the  gods  and  Apollo  granted  the 
gift  of  prophecy  to  Calchas.2  Sometimes  this  knowledge  comes 
in  answer  to  prayer,  more  often  the  favor  of  the  god  grants  it 
without  any  request.  That  it  is  the  direct  gift  of  the  Olympians 
is  in  harmony  with  the  epic  conception  of  these  divine  rulers  ;  that 
it  is  definite,  though  somewhat  limited,  is  perhaps  to  be  explained 
by  the  fact  that  within  the  general  course  of  events  the  gods  left 
many  choices  open  to  men. 

Although  some  direct  knowledge  of  the  future  is  assigned  to 
prophets  in  the  epic,  their  more  important  task  is  to  interpret 
dreams,  signs,  and  omens.  To  the  ordinary  man  these  signs  were 
sometimes  clear  ;  it  required  the  art  of  Calchas,  however,  to  inter- 
pret the  sign  at  Aulis  which  portended  the  ten  years'  siege  of 
Troy 3 ;  and  as  a  rule  the  prophet  would  find  more  meaning  in  a 
sign  and  expound  it  with  greater  authority.  For  this  reason,  the 
army  going  to  Troy  had  its  official  seer,  Calchas  ;  Telemus  declared 
the  divine  decrees  to  the  Cyclopes ;  even  the  suitors  in  the  house 
of  Odysseus  had  both  bard  and  seer.4 

1  Odyssey,  n.  139;  cp.  10.  473. 

2  Iliad,  8.  218 ;  7.  44  (and  53)  ;  i.  72  and  385.    Cp.  Odyssey,  i.  201. 
8  Iliad,  2.  322  f.  <  Odyssey,  9.  507  f. ;  22.  318  £ 


REVELATION   AND   INSPIRATION  55 

In  addition  to  these  "official"  prophets,  wandering  soothsayers 
and  seers  are  occasionally  mentioned.  Such  Penelope  summoned 
to  her  halls  in  her  desire  to  learn  of  Odysseus.1  Prophet,  physi- 
cian, and  carpenter  are  classed  together  as  skilled  craftsmen.2 
When  prophecy  thus  becomes  a  trade  pursued  for  gain,  it  is  natu- 
ral that  the  suitors  in  the  house  of  the  absent  Odysseus  should 
discredit  it,  and  that  Agamemnon  should  accuse  Calchas  of  fore- 
telling only  what  is  evil.8 

It  is  only  fair  to  credit  in  part  to  the  ideals  of  the  poet  that 
somewhat  elevated  conception  of  the  seer  which  is  found  in  the 
Homeric  poems.  Prophecy  was  a  trade,  but  this  is  only  inciden- 
tally mentioned  ;  no  doubt  ecstatic  rites  were  often  practised,  but 
Homer  does  not  allude  to  them  ;  the  interpretation  of  signs  rested 
largely  on  experience,  but  the  epic  lays  no  stress  on  this  fact; 
prophecies  must  have  been  either  vague  or  often  unfulfilled,  but 
in  the  poems  they  show  a  clear  vision  of  the  future.  The  epic 
conception  of  prophecy  is  distinct  and  definite  :  the  gods  gra- 
ciously accord  to  men  they  love  a  clear  insight  into  the  divine 
purposes ;  because  he  is  a  friend  of  the  gods,  the  prophet  can 
often  foretell  the  future. 

The  seers  and  prophets  of  later  times  may  be  grouped  under 
four  headings,  (i)  The  seers  who  accompanied  the  Greek  army 
to  interpret  signs  and  conduct  the  sacrifices  have  already  been 
mentioned.  Their  presence  was  important,  not  because  the  signs 
were  so  difficult  to  discern,  but  rather  because  some  official  inter- 
prete,r  of  the  divine  will  lent  greater  sanction.  At  the  same  time, 
as  Xenophon  points  out,4  a  prophet  like  Silanus  may  see  more  and 
see  more  clearly  than  the  general.  His  superior  powers  rest  partly 
on  experience,5  partly  on  divine  enlightenment.  To  secure  a  noted 
seer  like  Teisamenus  the  Spartans  made  the  one  exception  to  their 
universal  rule,  granting  the  prize  of  Spartan  citizenship  to  him  and 

1  Odyssey,  i.  415.  8  Odyssey,  2.  201 ;  Iliad,  i.  106. 

2  Odyssey,  17.  384;  cp.  2.  158,  170.  4  Anabasis,  i.  7.  18. 

6  Isocrates  (19.  5-6)  speaks  of  the  books  of  the  seer  Polemaenetus  by  means  of 
which  one  Thrasyllus  became  proficient  in  the  art. 


$6  GREEK   RELIGION 

to  his  brother.1  In  all  probability  such  seers  were  attached  to  the 
early  kings  of  Greece ;  certainly  the  position  assigned  in  story  to 
Teiresias 2  corresponds  closely  to  that  of  the  seers  in  the  Greek 
army. 

(2)  The  transition  is  easy  from  these  attendants  of  the  army 
to   the  great  families  of  seers  connected  with  such  shrines  as 
Olympia.     Homer  recognizes  that  the  divine  gift  runs  in  families 
like  that  of  Melampus,  a  seer  family  widely  renowned  in  early 
legend.8    The  Clytiadae  of  Elis  traced  their  descent  from  Melam- 
pus.4    Even   more   influential   in   the    historic   period  were   the 
lamidae,  whose  praises  Pindar  sang  in  the  sixth  Olympian  Ode. 
It  was  the  special  right  of  this  family  to  practise  divination  by 
means  of  the  ashes  of  burnt  offerings  on  the  great  altar  of  Zeus  at 
Olympia.5     Such  was  its  influence  that  members  of  the  family 
found  occupation  as  seers  in  all  parts  of  the  Greek  world.     To 
the  lamidae  belonged  Teisamenus,  the  seer  at  the  battle  of  Plataea, 
and  Callias  whom  the  people  of  Croton  received  and  honored.6 
No  doubt  the  lore  of  generations  would  be  preserved  in  such  a 
family,  while  their  position  at  Olympia  enabled   them  to  claim 
powers  due  to  close  connection  with  Zeus. 

(3)  The  seers  and  prophets  already  considered  were  entirely 
free   from   that  kind   of  wild   inspiration  which  nature   peoples 
attribute  to  possession  by  a  divine  spirit.    Yet  the  word  for  prophet 
(/xavris  from  (jM.ivofjM.1,  to  rage)  is  a  relic  of  this  belief;   Greek 
thought  makes  full  place  for  that  inspiration  which  renders  men 
!i/0eoi,  OfoffropryroL,  possessed  by  a  god.     "  There  is  also  a  madness 
which  is  the  special  gift  of  heaven,  and  the  source  of  the  chiefest 
blessings  among  men.     For  prophecy  is  a  madness  .  .  .  and  in 
proportion  as  prophecy  is  higher  and  more  perfect  than  divination 
...  is   madness   superior  to  a  sane  mind,  for  the  one  is  only 
of  human,  but  the  other  of  divine  origin."7     Plato  cites  as  exam- 

1  Herodotus,  9.  33. 

2  Apparently  the  name  is  from  the  root  which  appears  in  rtpas,  sign. 
8  Odyssey,  n.  291 ;  15.  225  f.  6  Pindar,  Olym.  8.  2. 

*  Pausanias,  6.  17.  6.  •  Herodotus,  9.  33 ;  5.  44. 

7  Plato,  Phaedr.  244,  trans.  Jowett.    Cp.  Aristotle,  Prob.  XXX. 


REVELATION    AND    INSPIRATION  57 

pies  the  Pythia  at  Delphi  and  the  priestesses  at  Dodona ;  Cas- 
sandra is  "  frenzied,  by  some  god's  might  swayed  "  when  "  the 
dread  pang  of  true  prophet's  gift  with  preludes  of  great  evil 
dizzies"  her;1  a  seer  like  Amphilytus  greeted  Peisistratus,  He- 
rodotus says,  with  inspired  hexameters.2  Ventriloquism  was  some- 
times used  to  delude  the  people  into  thinking  they  heard  words 
inspired  of  a  god.3  But  while  Greek  thought  clearly  recognized 
and  explained  such  divine  inspiration,  it  found  small  place  in 
actual  practice.  The  original  Sibyl  may  have  been  a  historical 
person  who  was  subject  to  prophetic  frenzy ;  the  oracles  of  the 
Sibyl,  of  Musaeus,  Bacis,  or  Glanis  are  known  as  collections 
referred  to  a  more  or  less  mythical  past. 

(4)  In  everyday  life  it  was  the  "  chresmologist,"  the  man  who 
possessed  a  collection  of  ancient  oracles  which  he  interpreted  to 
meet  the  need  of  the  questioner,  who  ordinarily  played  the  role 
of  the  prophet  for  Greece.  Such  collections  sometimes  belonged 
to  the  state,  as  the  "  parchments  of  Loxias "  at  Argos,  and  the 
oracles  brought  from  the  Athenian  acropolis  to  Sparta  :  often  they 
were  in  private  possession.4  Not  only  these  ancient  oracles,  but 
the  responses  of  the  Pythia,  were  interpreted  by  men  who  prac- 
tised the  trade  of  the  chresmologist.5  Samples  of  the  kind  of 
oracle  such  a  man  would  produce  from  his  ovn  collection  with 
the  authority  of  Bacis  or  Musaeus,  may  be  found  in  Herodotus.6 
Aristophanes 7  has  no  more  bitter  satire  than  for  these  men  who 
successfully  practised  on  the  credulity  of  the  people.  That 
prophecy  was  a  trade  practised  for  the  money  rewards  it  would 
bring,  and  that  oracles  were  constantly  being  forged  to  meet 
emergencies  and  inserted  in  the  old  collections,  the  Greeks  dis- 
tinctly recognized.8  Even  the  seer  who  attended  the  army  must 

1  Aeschylus,  Agam.  1140,  1215,  trans.  Plumptre.  2  Herodotus,  i.  62. 

8  Plutarch,  De  defect,  orac.  9,  p.  414  E;  cp.  Philochorus,  Frag.  192. 
4  Herodotus,  5.90;   Euripides,  Frag.  629;   Pausanias,  10.  12.  n;    Herodotus, 
7.6. 

6  Herodotus,  7.  141  f.  6  Herodotus,  8.  20 ;  8.  96 ;  9.  43. 

7  Aristophanes,  Eq.  and  Av.  passim. 

8  Herodotus,  7.  6 ;  Sophocles,  Ant.  1036,  1055 ;  Aristophanes,  Vesp.  52. 


5 8  GREEK  RELIGION 

be  watched  by  the  general.  Such  was  the  inevitable  result  wher 
men  sought  from  the  gods  not  a  revelation  of  the  divine  nature, 
but  some  knowledge  by  which  they  might  secure  prosperity  for 
themselves  or  for  their  state.  The  wonder  is  that  such  prophets 
could  continue  to  shelter  themselves  under  the  cloak  of  religion. 
The  honor  often  accorded  to  them  is  inexplicable  except  on  the 
assumption  that  some  of  them  were  shrewd  men  honestly  trying 
to  give  wise  advice.1 

9.  Oracles. — The  most  satisfactory  means  of  ascertaining  the 
future,  for  here  men  could  actually  ask  questions  of  some  mouth- 
piece of  the  gods,  were  the  oracles,  at  Dodona  and  Ammon,  at 
Branchidae  and  Colophon,  at  Lebadeia  and  Oropus,  most  impor- 
tant of  all  at  Delphi.  A  Greek  "  oracle  "  was  simply  a  centre  of 
religious  worship  where  some  form  of  divination  was  systematized. 
The  oracles  of  Trophonius2  and  Asclepius  were  dream  oracles, 
shrines  in  which  the  sick  slept  seeking  means  of  cure,  or  where 
men  who  desired  other  knowledge  of  the  future  obtained  it 
through  dreams.  The  oracles  of  Zeus  were  given  through  signs. 
At  Olympia  signs  from  sacrifices  to  the  god,  at  Ammon  signs  from 
the  movement  of  the  image  as  carried  by  the  priests,  at  Dodona 
signs  from  the  rustling  leaves  of  Zeus's  oak,  were  interpreted  by 
the  official  servants  of  the  god.3  Apollo  was  the  god  of  inspira- 
tion ;  at  more  than  one  shrine  of  Apollo  his  servant  was  thought 
to  be  overcome  by  the  spirit  of  the  god  till  the  answers  which 
came  through  human  lips  were  in  reality  from  the  divine  spirit 
within.  To  determine  the  religious  significance  of  oracles  for 
Greece,  it  is  sufficient  to  consider  the  most  important  of  them, 
the  shrine  of  Apollo  Pythios  at  Delphi. 

The  story  goes  that  sheep  grazing  on  the  rocky  slopes  of  Par- 
nassus were  affected  by  gases  and  performed  strange  antics  as 
they  passed  a  certain  spot ;  that  the  shepherds,  then  others  fol- 
lowing their  example,  found  that  when  they  breathed  these  gases 

1  Herodotus,  9.  33;  Pausanias,  10.  9.  7.  2  Pausanias,  9.  39.  5  f. 

8  Schol.  on  Pindar,  Olym.  6.  119;  Diodorus,  17.  50;  Odyssey,  14.  327  (cp. 
Aeschylus,  Prom,  832) . 


REVELATION   AND   INSPIRATION 


59 


they  could  see  into  the  future  ;  that  finally  a  temple  of  Apollo 
was  built  over  the  chasm,  and  the  Pythian  priestess,  seated  on  a 
tripod,  breathed  the  gases  till  the  god  inspired  her  to  answer  the 
questions  of  those  who  came  to  consult  the  oracle.1  The  priest- 
ess was  a  native  of  Delphi,  a  maiden  or  in  late  times  an  aged 


FIG.  7. —  VIEW  OF  THE  CLIFFS  AT  DELPHI 

woman  clothed  as  a  maiden,  in  Plutarch's  day  the  daughter  of  a 
peasant.2  After  bathing  in  the  water  of  Castalia,  and  drinking 
from  the  spring  Cassotis,  she  chewed  leaves  of  Apollo's  laurel  and 
mounted  the  tripod.3  To-day  there  is  no  cleft  beneath  the  ruins 
of  the  temple;  a  recent  German  student  of  Delphi4  has  noted 

1  Diodorus,  16.  2*>;  Aristotle,  De  mvndo,  4;  Pausanias,  10.  5.  6-7 ;  Plutarch,  De 
defect,  or ac.  46,  p.  435  D  ;  Strabo,  8.  419. 

2  Euripides,  Ion,  1322;   Diodorus,  16.  26;  Plutarch,  De  Pyth.  orac.  22,  p.  405  C. 
8  Lucian,  Her  mot.  60,  p.  801 ;  Bis  ace.  I,  p.  792. 

4  Pomtow,  Beitra^e  zur  Topographie  von  Delphi  (1889),  32  Anm.  2. 


60  GREEK  RELIGION 

currents  of  ice-cold  air  with  a  sharp  acid  smell  issuing  from  the 
earth  in  the  vicinity.  Gas  or  no  gas,  the  ritual  would  be  sufficient 
to  produce  hypnotic  effects  in  a  susceptible  priestess.  Unwill- 
ingly, "  struggling  against  Apollo's  power,"  she  mounted  the  tripod. 
Meantime  the  questioners  had  sacrificed  to  Apollo,  lots  had  deter- 
mined their  order,  and  the  questions  in  written  form  were  handed 
to  the  head  official  (TTTHX^T^S)  -1  Within  the  shrine  the  official  pro- 
pounded the  question  to  the  raving  priestess,  her  answer,  only  partly 
intelligible,  he  put  into  a  sort  of  hexameter  verse,  and  returned  it 
in  writing,  sealed,  to  the  questioner.2  All  the  imposing  ritual  of 
a  wealthy  shrine  was  devised  to  gain  credence  for  this  answer. 

More  than  two  hundred  supposed  deliverances  of  the  oracle 
are  preserved  to  us  in  literature.  Most  of  these  are  given  by  late 
authors  and  their  validity  is  very  doubtful.  Some  fifty  of  them, 
however,  are  quoted  in  Herodotus ;  and  of  these  it  may  be 
affirmed  that  he  obtained  at  least  half  at  Delphi  itself.  Whether 
they  are  genuine  or  forged  by  Delphic  priests  in  the  form  of 
genuine  oracles,  they  illustrate  the  claims  of  the  shrine.3  Nat- 
urally the  historian  quotes  very  few  that  deal  with  private  life. 
We  do  read  how  Croesus  enquired  about  his  dead  son,  Halyattes 
about  his  illness,  Teisamenus  as  to  offspring.4  Oftentimes  the 
answer  gave  some  other  information  than  what  was  asked,  infor- 
mation that  in  the  case  of  Teisamenus  led  to  its  own  fulfilment. 
A  long  series  of  the  oracles  quoted  by  Herodotus  deal  with  the 
internal  needs  of  states  :  where  cure  from  pestilence  is  sought, 
some  moral  or  religious  cause  is  assigned  in  answer  and  some 
moral  or  religious  cure  suggested ;  for  political  confusion,  an 
arbitrator  is  assigned,  or  a  code  of  laws  sanctioned,  or  a  king  con- 
firmed in  his  position;5  changes  in  worship,  also,  are  rejected  or 

1  Plutarch,  Qitaes.  graec.  9,  p.  292  D ;  De  defect,  orac.  49,  p.  437  A;  Schol.  on 
Aristophanes,  Plut.  39. 

2  Plutarch,  De  Pyth.  orac.  5,  p.  396  D ;  Suidas,  s.v.  ret  rpla. 

8  "  Herodotus  and  the  Oracle  at  Delphi,"  Classical  Journal,  i  (1906)  37  f. 
4  Herodotus,  i.  85 ;  i.  19 ;  9.  33. 

6  Herodotus,  4.  151  f. ;  5.  82 ;  4. 161 ;  I.  65 ;  6.  52 ;  I.  13 ;  4.  163 ;  5.  67 ;  7.  178 ; 
Demosthenes,  21.  52  f. 


REVELATION   AND   INSPIRATION 


61 


FIG.  8.  — PLAN  OF  THE  PRECINCT  OF  APOLLO  AT  DELPHI 


62 


GREEK   RELIGION 


approved  by  the  Delphic  god.  Other  oracles  deal  with  external 
politics.  The  shrine  claimed  the  right  to  suggest  colonies,  to 
determine  their  destination,  and  to  establish  the  form  of  govern- 
ment.1 In  case  of  war,  the  answers  of  the  oracle  now  predicted 
failure,  now  suggested  an  alliance,  at  times  they  urged  moderation 


'  FIG.  9.  —  VIEW  OF  THE  RUINS  OF  THE  SHRINE  OF  APOI.LO  AT  DELPHI 

in  victory,  or  warned  of  treachery,  or  finally  they  promised  suc- 
cess.2 Necessarily  very  many  of  the  answers  were  vague,  in  most 
general  terms,  perhaps  susceptible  of  opposite  meanings.  When 
Croesus  inquired  whether  he  should  march  against  the  Persians, 
he  was  told  that  if  he  crossed  the  river  Halys  he  should  destroy 
a  great  kingdom  —  his  own  kingdom,  as  the  event  proved.3  The 
fact  remains  that  they  often  contained  very  shrewd  advice ;  for 
this  reason  and  because  the  answers  were  often  such  as  to  cause 

1  Herodotus,  5.  42 ;  4. 150.  2  Herodotus,  6.  19 ;  7. 140 ;  5. 79 ;  4. 163. 

8  Herodotus,  i.  53 ;  Aristotle,  Rhet.  3.  5. 


REVELATION   AND    INSPIRATION  63 

their  own  fulfilment,  the  claims  of  the  oracle  to  foretell  the  future 
found  considerable  justification. 

In  particular  the  answers  of  the  oracle  stood  for  progress  in 
ethics  and  in  religion.  Glaucus,  who  asked  whether  he  could 
break  an  oath,1  so  the  priests  said,  was  told  that  for  even  propos- 
ing the  question  his  family  should  utterly  perish.  A  late  story 
tells  of  three  men  attacked  by  robbers ;  the  one  who  ran  away 
was  condemned  by  the  oracle  for  refusing  his  aid  ;  the  second, 
who  killed  his  companion  in  trying  to  aid  him,  was  told  that  his 
hands  were  made  even  purer  by  manslaughter  with  pure  inten- 
tion.2 Extreme  cruelty  was  assigned  as  the  cause  of  divine  wrath 
which  led  to  pestilence.3  As  the  penalty  for  murder  the  oracle 
advised  some  money  recompense  instead  of  more  shedding  of 
blood.4  In  religion  the  influence  of  the  oracle  was  directed 
toward  the  development  of  local  worship ;  not  that  it  in  any  way 
sought  to  check  the  worship  of  the  Olympian  deities,  but  its 
policy  was  to  establish  that  local  worship  of  heroes  in  which  there 
was  a  more  vital  religion  for  the  people  than  in  the  splendid  state 
cults. 

What  estimate  are  we  to  place  on  oracles  which  consist  of  the 
incoherent  cries  of  a  delirious  woman  interpreted  by  shrewd 
priests  ?  In  antiquity  the  shrine  had  such  a  reputation  that  not 
only  Greece,  but  Asia  Minor,  and  the  Roman  world  came  here  to 
consult  the  god.  The  early  fathers  of  the  Christian  church  con- 
sistently held  that  the  inspiration  of  the  Pythia  was  real,  the  work 
of  evil  spirits.  One  of  the  first  to  attack  this  doctrine  was  the 
Hollander,  Van  Dale,5  who  explained  the  oracles  as  the  result  of 
conscious  deception  deliberately  practised  by  the  priests.  His 
theory  leaves  unexplained  the  influence  of  the  oracle  for  purer 
morals;  nor  can  we  believe  that  freedom-loving  Greeks  would 
have  yielded  submission  for  centuries  to  the  dictates  of  such  de- 
liberate imposition.  Both  the  Pythian  priestess,  the  "prophet," 

1  Herodotus,  6.  86.  8  Herodotus,  6. 139. 

2  Aelian,  Var.  hist.  3.  44.  *  Herodotus,  8.  114. 
6  De  oraculis  veterum  ethnicorum  dissertationes  duae,  Amsterdam,  1700. 


64  GREEK  RELIGION 

and  the  priests  must  have  been  well  informed  as  to  the  political 
condition  of  the  Greek  states;  if  one  may  judge  from  the  oracles 
that  remain,  they  were  inspired  by  high  ideals  and  a  real  desire 
for  the  welfare  of  Greece ;  the  oracles  further  reveal  certain  defi- 
nite principles,  e.g.  as  to  colonies,  the  worship  of  heroes,  recom- 
pense for  murder,  principles  that  applied  to  large  numbers  of  the 
questions  asked.  When  the  shrine  "  medized  "  or  "  philippized," 
the  latter  a  word  of  Demosthenes,1  it  was  because  the  Greek 
people  were  overmastered  by  fear  of  Xerxes  and  of  Philip ;  actual 
corruption  of  the  oracle,  wholly  improbable  in  these  cases,  was 
proven  only  in  a  very  few  instances  which  were  promptly  punished 
by  the  Delphians  themselves.2  So  far  as  the  delirious  priestess  is 
concerned,  she  was  no  doubt  open  to  unconscious  suggestion  from 
the  official  "  prophet "  who  put  the  question  to  her ;  in  giving 
metrical  form  to  her  answers  we  can  hardly  doubt  that,  however 
much  he  was  really  responsible  for  the  content  of  the  reply,  he 
ordinarily  acted  in  the  honest  conviction  that  he  was  giving  what 
Apollo  had  suggested  through  the  priestess. 

The  fact  remains  unquestioned  that  Delphi  was,  as  it  has  often 
been  called,  the  "  Vatican  of  antiquity,"  a  holy  city,  a  centre  of 
moral  teaching,  and  an  authoritative  guide  in  matters  of  politics 
as  well  as  in  matters  of  religion. 

1  Aeschines,  3.  130. 

2  Herodotus,  6.  66 ;  Plutarch,  Lysander,  25,  p.  447. 


CHAPTER   II 

THE   WORSHIP   OF  THE  GODS 

1.  Sacred  Places.  —  While  the  gods  of  Homer  have  in  Olympus 
their  dwellings  made  by  Hephaestus,  each  god  has  also  favorite 
haunts  on  the  earth  where  he  is  wont  to  receive  the  worship 
of  men.  In  later  ages  also  men  worshipped  in  places  which  sug- 
gested the  presence  of  the  gods,  and  where  men  worshipped  was 
the  place  at  which  a  god  liked  to  be  present.  Mountain  tops 
high  in  heaven  and  often  covered  with  thunder  clouds  suggested 
the  presence  of  Zeus,  grottoes  and  springs  the  presence  of  nymphs, 
underground  caverns,  gods  or  spirits  from  the  world  below ;  in 
any  thick  grove  might  dwell  a  god.  The  goddess  of  the  hearth 
dwelt  inside  the  home,  gods  of  the  market-place  in  the  busy  centre 
of  trade,  so  that  it  was  a  purely  empirical  deduction  when  Xeno- 
phon1  stated  that  ordinarily  a  sanctuary  should  be  located  "in 
some  conspicuous  place,  apart  from  the  daily  life  of  men  " ;  such 
a  principle,  in  so  far  as  it  was  based  on  fact,  would  mean  that  the 
gods  more  commonly  gave  token  of  their  presence  in  places 
apart  from  the  daily  life  of  men.  For  where  the  gods  were  mani- 
festly present,  worship  would,  of  course,  most  surely  reach  them. 
The  assumption  that  a  god  may  be  found  again  where  he  has  once 
been  present,  is  perhaps  the  most  important  principle  in  deter- 
mining a  place  of  worship. 

Centres  of  local  worship,  sacred  places  where  the  gods  come  to 
enjoy  the  gifts  men  bring  to  them,  are  recognized  in  the  Homeric 
poems.  On  his  way  to  Troy  Agamemnon  stopped  at  every  altar 

1  Xenophon,  Mem.  3.  8.  10. 

GREEK    RELIGION  —  5  65 


66  GREEK  RELIGION 

of  Zeus  to  offer  sacrifices.1  Two  shrines  of  the  nymphs  near 
Ithaca  are  described,  wild  spots  where  wayfarers  stopped  to  honor 
the  spirits  of  fertility.2  Chryses,  Maron,  and  Onetor  were  priests 
attached  to  shrines  of  Apollo  or  Zeus,  whose  duty  it  was  to  keep 
up  the  worship  at  these  sacred  spots.3  Such  a  shrine  included  an 
altar  and  ordinarily  a  grove  sacred  to  the  god  ;  its  position  might 
be  determined  by  the  nature  of  the  god  worshipped,  as  in  the 
case  of  the  shrine  of  Zeus  on  Mt.  Ida,  and  that  of  the  river  god, 
Spercheius ;  in  any  case  it  was  a  favorite  resort  of  the  god.4 
When  it  was  inside  a  city,  or  contained  treasures  of  the  god,  a 
stone  wall  protected  it  from  intrusion.  In  the  palace  also,  the 
camp  of  an  army,  the  hut  of  a  swineherd,  were  altars  on  which 
parts  of  each  animal  killed  for  food  were  sacrificed  to  the  gods.5 
In  almost  every  instance  it  is  clear  that  worship  was  carried  on, 
not  inside  any  building,  but  in  the  open  air.  The  temples  (or 
temple)  which  Chryses  built  must  have  been  very  simple,  perhaps 
mere  booths  used  in  worship  ;  the  temples  of  the  Phaeacians,  and 
the  temple  vowed  to  Helios  by  the  companions  of  Odysseus  were 
more  substantial ;  however,  it  was  only  the  temples  of  Athena  and 
of  Apollo  on  the  Trojan  acropolis  that  played  any  part  in  the  poems.6 
In  the  earlier  period  of  the  epic  worship  was  described  as  taking 
place  beside  an  altar  in  the  open  air ;  but  when  the  poems  took 
final  shape,  at  least  in  the  more  important  city  shrines  of  Ionia, 
substantial  houses  for  the  god  had  taken  the  place  of  the  simple 
altar  near  a  grove. 

In  later  times  the  sacred  precinct  (re/xevos)  might  be  a  very 
limited  space  about  the  temple,  or  in  the  country  it  might  cover 
several  miles.  Sometimes  it  was  holy  ground  that  none  could 
enter,  like 

1  Iliad,  8.  238 ;  cp.  "  Local  Cults  in  Homer,"  The  New  World,  December,  1895. 

2  Odyssey,  13.  349 ;  17.  210. 

8  Iliad,  i.  ii,  39;  16.  604;   Odyssey,  9.  197. 

4  Iliad,  2.  305,  506;   Odyssey,  6.  162,  291,  321;  Iliad,  22.  170;  23.  148. 
6  Iliad,  ii.  773 ;  2.  400  f. ;    Odyssey,  14.  420. 

6  Iliad,  I.  39;  Odyssey,  6.  10;  12.  346;  Iliad,  6.  88,  274,  279,  297;  5.  446-448; 
7.  83 ;  cp.  Cauer,  Grundfragen  der  Homerkritik,  197  f. 


THE   WORSHIP  OF  THE   GODS  67 

"  the  holy  grove, 
By  foot  of  man  untrod, 
Where  dwell  the  Virgin  Ones  invincible;"1 

again  it  could  be  entered  only  at  certain  periods  by  persons  duly 
purified,2  or  there  might  be  ownership  by  the  god  without  any 
such  restrictions.  The  whole  Crisaean  plain  was  dedicated  to  the 
Delphic  gods  to  lie  fallow.3  Ordinarily,  however,  such  properties 
served  as  a  source  of  income  to  the  shrine  of  the  god ;  contracts 
still  extant  tell  of  the  exact  manner  in  which  the  land  was  to  be 
used,  the  amount  to  be  paid  to  the  god,  and  the  care  with  which 
he  was  protected  against  loss.4  Such  properties  were  often  given 
to  Greek  shrines,  as  later  to  Christian  churches,  to  be  a  source  of 
income.  Along  with  the  lands,  the  gods  owned  and  leased  now 
houses,  now  factories,  flocks  of  sheep,  poultry,  or  rights  in  fish- 
eries.5 Rentals  from  these  sources,  a  share  in  taxes,  some  per- 
quisites from  the  animals  sacrificed,  and  fines  imposed  for  failure 
to  obey  divine  commands,  constituted  the  income  of  the  shrine. 
The  management  of  the  income  was  in  the  hands  of  the  priests,6 
though  ordinarily  the  priests  were  state  officials. 

In  the  city  of  Athens  we  know  of  more  than  two  hundred  such 
shrines  (including  altars  to  one  god  in  the  precinct  of  another 
god)  which  were  centres  of  worship.  Speaking  generally  we  may 
say  that  in  no  two  of  these  shrines  was  the  same  god  worshipped 
under  the  same  aspect  of  his  being.7  Athena  was  worshipped  on 

1  Sophocles,  Oed.  Col.  125  f.,  trans.  Plumptre. 

2  E.g.  the  shrine  of  Hippodameia  at  Olyinpia  was  entered  once  a  year   by 
women.    Pausanias,  6.  20.  4. 

3  Aeschines,  3.  107-108 ;  cp.  Plutarch,  Pericles,  30,  p.  168. 

4  E.g.  for  the  shrine  of  Codrus,  Neleus,  and  Basile,  C.I. A.  IV.  i.  2,  p.  66,  no.  53  a ; 
cp.  also  Bull.  Corr.  Hell.  4  (1880)  295  f. ;   16  (1892)  278  f.,  and  farther  references 
given  by  Stengel,  Die griechisc hen  Kultusaltertiimer,  19-21. 

6  C.I. A.  I.  283;  11.817;  Altertiimer  von  Pergamon,  8. 1,  p.  36,  no.  40;  Bull.  Corr. 
Hell.  6  (1882)  20, 1.  158 f.;  14  (1890)  399  f. 

6  In  the  case  of  important  shrines  a  special  state  commission   (at  Athens  the 
Ta.fda.1  r&v  iepuv  xpwuirui')  was  often  appointed  to  take  charge  of  the  temple 
finances. 

7  Cp.  Introduction,  p.  22. 


68 


GREEK   RELIGION 


the  Acropolis  as  Athena  Polias,  guardian  of  the  city,  as  Athena 
Nike,  and  as  Athena  Hygieia ;  on  the  Areopagus  she  was  Athena 
Areia ;  elsewhere  in  the  city  were  shrines  of  Athena  Hephaistia, 
Athena  Hippia,  Athena  Skiras,  etc.  These  different  shrines  did 
not  exist  for  the  convenience  of  worshippers,  like  churches  in  a 
modern  city,  but  the  goddess  was  worshipped  at  each  point  in  a 
different  aspect  of  her  nature.  Oftentimes  they  represented  some 
old  worship  at  Athens ;  or  they  were  branches  of  honored  cults 
elsewhere,  like  the  worship  of  Apollo  Pythios  on  the  banks  of  the 
Ilissus,  or  that  of  Artemis  Brauronia  on  the  Acropolis,  branches 
established  that  Athens  might  worship  the  god  of  Delphi  and  the 
goddess  of  Brauron  ;  sometimes  they  seem  to  be  offshoots  of 
another  Athenian  cult,  established  to  emphasize  some  one  aspect 


FIG.  10.  —  EARLY  BLACK-FIGURED  VASE  PAINTING  (British  Museum) 

A  procession  headed  by  a  priestess  with  tray  of  offerings  and  a  man  playing  the 
double  flute  is  conducting  a  bull  to  the  altar  of  Athena;  behind  the  altar  is  a 
statue  of  Athena  and  a  serpent. 

of  the  god.  An  examination  of  these  cults  confirms  the  impres- 
sion that  worship  was  carried  on  primarily  in  the  name  of  the  city, 
so  that  one  shrine  to  one  aspect  of  a  god  was  all  sufficient ;  and 
further  that  each  god  or  goddess  was  at  the  same  time  one  and 
many-fold,  one  in  mythological  theory,  many- fold  in  worship. 


THE  WORSHIP   OF  THE   GODS 


69 


The  centre  of  worship,  ordinarily  within  a  sacred  precinct,  was 
the  altar  (/Jto/xds).  The  attempt  has  been  made  to  prove  that 
Greek  altars  were  in  the  first  instance  seats  fjr  the  unseen  god, 
present  with  his  worshippers ;  then  later,  tables  to  receive  the 
offering  or  hearths  where  it  could  be  burnt.1  No  other  explana- 
tion has  been  offered  for  the  peculiar  shapes  of  altars  depicted  in 
early  vase  paintings,  than  that  the  higher  part  represents  a  seat, 
the  lower  part  a  footstool  where  men  might  humbly  lay  their  gifts. 
The  material  of  which  the  altar  was  made  and  its  form,  were 


FIG.  ii. —  ATHENIAN  BLACK-FIGURED  VASE  PAINTING  (Lekythos,  Athens) 

Sacrifice  before  the  departure  of  a  warrior;  on  an  altar  of  brick  the  tail  of  the 

animal  is  seen  in  the  fire,  over  which  an  attendant  is  roasting  meat  on  a  spit. 

determined  partly  by  its  position  and  use,  partly  by  local  tradition. 
In  the  house  a  table  or  a  pillar,  or  even  some  portable  tray, 
received  the  fruits  and  flowers  men  offered  to  the  god.2  A  heap 
of  stones  or  sod  might  serve  the  traveller  as  an  altar.3  Before  the 
temple  there  was  built  perhaps  a  large  structure  of  cut  stone,4  or 
an  altar  was  hewn  from  the  natural  rock;  the  ashes  of  former 
sacrifices,  the  piled  up  horns  of  previous  victims,  a  mound  of 
earth  or  stones  even  a  few  inches  high,  were  the  altars  prescribed 
by  holy  tradition  at  some  shrines ; 5  again  at  Syracuse  there  are 

1  Reichel,  Ueber  vorhellenische  Goiterkulte. 

2  In  general  see  de  Molin,  De  ara  apud  Graecos,  1884,  and  the  article  "Altar" 
by  Reisch  in  Pauly-Wissowa,  Realencyclopaedie. 

8  Apollonius  Rhodius,  i.  403  ;  2.  695. 
4  E.g.  the  altar  of  the  Chians  at  Delphi,  Herodotus  2.  135. 

6  Pausanias,  5.  13.  8;  9.  u.  7;  Callimachus,  Hymn  to  Apollo,  60;  Altertiime'r 
von  Pergamon,  8.  i,  no.  68. 


7o 


GREEK   RELIGION 


still  seen  the  remains  of  a  rock  altar  a  stadium  in  length,1  and 
sculptured  slabs  testify  to  the  magnificence  of  the  great  altar  of 
Zeus  at  Pergamon.  Oftentimes  the  "  hearth  "  where  the  victims 
were  burned  was  a  distinct  part  of  the  altar.2 

The  most  important  question  for  the  history  of  religion  is  con- 
cerned with  the  difference  between  the  altar  proper  for  the  gods 
above  and  the  hearth  altar  (eo-xapa)  for  the  gods  and  spirits  of  the 


FIG.  12.  — THE  GREAT  ALTAR  AT  PERGAMON  (restoration) 

lower  regions.  Whether  this  latter  type  was  made  of  earth  or 
stone,  it  was  a  low  structure  so  built  that  the  blood  of  the  victims 
might  run  down  through  it  into  the  earth  itself.  At  the  shrine  in 
Samothrace  and  at  the  Kabeirion  near  Thebes,3  this  hearth 
included  a  covered  stone  bowl  with  such  an  aperture  for  the  blood 
to  percolate  into  the  earth  below.  Fire  carried  the  odor  of  fat 
thigh  pieces  to  the  gods  above  :  the  gods  below  drank  the  blood 
of  victims  slain  to  propitiate  their  wrath. 

Almost  without  exception  the  Greek  temple  was  a  home  for  the 
god,  not  a  place  where  men  assembled  for  worship.  In  such  a 
home  some  symbol  or  image  denoted  the  god's  presence ;  valu- 
able gifts  —  wreaths  or  vessels  of  precious  metal,  works  of  art, 

1  Diodorus,  16.  83.  *  Aristophanes,  Ach.  887 ;    Vesp.  938. 

8  Ath.  Mittk,  13  (1888)  95  and  illustration. 


THE   WORSHIP  OF  THE  GODS  71 

or  money  —  and  the  utensils  of  worship  belonged  there  ;*  at  times 
it  might  even  serve  as  the  treasury  for  the  city  of  which  the  god 
was  the  patron  deity.  Often  the  treasures  belonging  to  the  god 
were  sufficiently  large  so  that  loans  could  be  made  to  the  state  in 
time  of  need.2  About  the  home  of  the  god  might  be  grouped 
the  houses  of  his  priests,3  stalls  for  animals  destined  to  be  sacri- 
ficed, and  occasionally  dwellings  where  sick  people  could  be 
brought  to  be  healed  by  the  god.  All  this  precinct  (re/xevos)  was 
sacred.  The  man  accused  of  a  crime  could  flee  here  for  safety, 
and,  though  there  was  a  difference  in  the  rights  accorded  to  differ- 
ent temples,  a  suppliant  of  the  god  was  not  to  be  lightly  treated. 
To  remove  an  innocent  person  from  the  altar  of  the  god  where 
he  had  taken  refuge  was  a  sacrilege  that  stirred  the  divine  anger. 
The  right  to  shelter  any  man,  innocent  or  guilty,  was  accorded  only 
to  a  few  shrines.4  Bowls  of  holy  water  (irepippavT-^pui)  served  to 
purify  those  who  approached  the  god.5 

The  temple  itself  ordinarily  faced  the  east,  for  the  worship  of 
the  gods  above  belonged  to  the  morning.  Three  steps  ran  around 
it,  three,  we  are  told,  in  order  that  the  worshipper  might  place  the 
right  foot  on  the  first  and  third.6  The  essential  part  of  the  temple 
was  the  chamber  in  which  stood  the  symbol  or  image  of  the  god 
(cella,  vaos ;  the  word  aSvrov  is  properly  applied  to  an  inner  room, 
but  sometimes  it  is  used  for  the  cella).  The  simpler  form  of 
temple  consisted  of  a  cella  with  columns  at  the  front,  or  at  both 
front  and  back ;  in  the  case  of  larger  buildings  one  or  even  two 
rows  of  columns  ran  around  the  entire  building,  but  the  building 
proper  still  retained  the  extra  columns  at  the  end,  inside  the  outer 

1  Cp.  the  inventory  of  the  objects  in  the  temple  of  Apollo  at  Delos  about  180  B.C., 
Bull.  Corr.  Hell.  6  (1882)  29  f. ;  Dittenberger,  Sylloge,  588. 

2  Cp.  the  proposal  of  the  Corinthians  to  borrow  from  the  temple  funds  at  Delphi 
and  Olympia,  Thucydides,  i.  121;  the  temples  also  received  deposits  of  money, 
like  a  modern  bank,  cp.  Posidonius  in  Athenaeus,  6.  24,  p.  233  F ;  cp.  Pausanias 
10.  14.  7. 

8  Strabo  12,  p.  575 ;  Euripides,  Iph.  Taur.  65. 

4  E.g.  the  shrine  of  Athena  Alea  in  Tegea  (Xenophon,  Hell.  3.  5.  25;  Pau- 
sanius,  3.  5.  6),  and  of  Zeus  Lykaios  at  Megalopolis  (Thucydides,  5.  16). 

6  Herodotus,  I.  51 ;   Pollux,  I.  8.  8  Vitruvius,  3.  4.  4. 


GREEK   RELIGION 


row.  The  Parthenon  at  Athens  is  a  typical  Greek  temple  of  this 
second  type.  It  had  eight  columns  at  each  end,  and  seventeen 
on  each  side ;  behind  the  eight  columns  were  six  more  columns 
in  front  of  the  building  itself.  The  base  on  which  the  columns 
rested  was  69.51  metres  in  length  and  30.86  metres  wide.  In  the 
case  of  the  Parthenon  a  sculptured  frieze  ran  around  the  upper 
wall  of  the  building,  inside  the  outer  row  of  columns;  the  colon- 
nade had  a  richly  decorated  ceiling ;  over  the  architrave  proper 


FIG.  13. —  GROUND  PLAN  OF  THE  PARTHENON 

on  the  outside  sculptured  slabs  (metopes)  were  set  between  sup- 
porting blocks  (triglyphs)  ;  and  in  the  pediments  or  gable  ends 
were  placed  groups  of  figures.  The  frieze  represented  the  great 
annual  procession  at  the  Panathenaic  festival ;  it  began  at  the 
west  of  the  building  with  young  men  preparing  to  join  the  proces- 
sion ;  on  the  sides  of  the  temple  were  to  be  seen  the  youth  on 
horseback,  men  in  armor  in  chariots,  animals  brought  to  the 
sacrifice,  and  persons  carrying  the  necessary  utensils ;  while  at 
the  front  officials  of  the  goddess  received  the  procession  in  the 
presence  of  the  gods  of  Attica.  The  metopes  represented  the 
contest  of  the  gods  and  giants,  and  other  contests  in  which  law 
and  order  triumphed  over  barbarian  force.  In  the  east  pediment 
was  to  be  seen  the  birth  of  Athena  from  the  head  of  Zeus,  in  the 


THE   WORSHIP   OF   THE   GODS 


73 


west  pediment  the  contest  of  Athena  with  Poseidon  for  the  land 
of  Attica.     The  building  itself  consisted  of  two  parts,  a  long  room 


FIG.  14.  —  SECTION  OF  THE  FRIEZE  OF  THE  PARTHENON 

Cattle  are  being  driven  to  the  Acropolis  in  the  Panathenaic 
procession,  to  be  sacrificed  to  Athena. 

facing  the  east  in  which  stood  the  great  gold  and  ivory  image  of 
the  goddess  with  its  altar  table,  and  a  square  room  behind  (the 
HapOcvuv  proper)  where  were  kept  utensils,  votive 
offerings,  and  other  property  of  the  goddess. 

In  early  times  there  was  no  cult  image,  properly 
so  called,  although  perhaps  some  sacred  stone  or 
pillar  marked  the  spot  where  the  god  was  present 
for  his  worshippers.  Whether  the  Homeric  poems 
mention  real  cult  images,  is  a  matter  of  dispute.1  FIG. 
Figures  of  the  god  in  clay  or  wood  seem  to  have  OF 
been  presented  as  votive  offerings,  and  it  is  not 
improbable  that  in  many  cases  one  of  these  offer- 
ings became  the  cult  image  (ayaXpa)  of  the  god. 
Hestia,  goddess  of  the  fire  on  the  hearth,  never  was  represented 
by  any'images,  for  she  was  herself  present  in  the  fire.  The  earlier 
cult  images  were  rude  objects  of  wood  (£oava)  with  but  little 
resemblance  to  the  human  form  ;  we  know  something  of  them, 

1  See  Iliad,  6.  92,  303. 


15.  —  COIN 
MEGALOPO- 
LIS (Caracalla) 

A    herm-figure    of 
Heracles,  draped. 


74  GREEK  RELIGION 

for  in  many  temples  they  were  never  replaced,  or  were  preserved 
as  relics.1  By  far  the  commonest  form  of  earlier  cult  image  to 
persist  was  the  herm  (ep/w/s)  or  term ;  the  god  Hermes  continued 
to  be  represented  by  a  square  pillar  with  a  head  or  a  mask  at  the 
top,  and  occasionally  other  gods,  especially  Dionysus,  were  repre- 
sented by  similar  "  herms."  To  cleanse  the  image,  perhaps  to 
decorate  it  with  fresh  garments,  was  often  an 
important  part  of  the  annual  worship  at  the 
temple.2  With  the  great  development  of  plastic 
art  in  the  fifth  and  fourth  centuries  almost  every 
temple  received  a  new  image  in  which  the  nature 
of  the  god  found  adequate  artistic  expression. 
These  images  were  of  bronze,  of  marble,  of  gold 
and  ivory  with  a  wooden  core.3  So  the  Athena 
FIG.  16.  —  GEM  BY  which  stood  in  the  Parthenon  was  a  framework 
ASPASIUS  covered  with  delicately  tinted  plates  of  ivory  for 
The  head  of  Athena  the  flesh  parts,  while  the  garments  and  acces- 
is  apparently  cop-  sories  were  made  from  plates  of  gold.  As  the 

ied  from  the  statue  .          , .    ,  .  ,     .       , ,  ,      . , 

in  the  Parthenon.  mormng  hght  streamed  in  through  the  great 
door  this  image  seemed  truly  to  embody  the 
goddess  of  war  and  wisdom  whose  nature  so  fitly  expressed  the 
spirit  of  the  Athenian  people.  To  such  an  image  our  word  "  idol " 
hardly  applies.  It  did  indeed  represent  the  goddess  herself 
present  in  her  home,  but  she  was  in  no  wise  limited  to  its  gold 
and  its  ivory ;  not  the  image,  but  the  goddess,  received  the 
homage  of  the  Athenians. 

2.  Sacred  Times.  —  Just  as  some  places  are  sacred  because  the 
presence  of  the  god  has  been  felt  there  and  he  may  be  expected 
to  visit  the  spot  again,  so  some  times  are  sacred  ;  i.e.  on  these 
days  the  god  has  visited  his  temple,  and  on  these  days  he  may  be 
expected  to  be  present  with  his  worshippers  once  more.4  On  this 

1  The  meaning  of  the  term  xoanon  in  Pausanias  is  discussed  by  Fraser,  Pausanias 
2.  69. 

2  Pausanias,  3.  16.  2;  6.  25.  5;  Euripides,  Iph.  Taur.  1199. 
8  Cp.  Lucian,  Gallus,  24;  Valerius  Maximus  i.  Ext.  7. 

*  Aristophanes,  Nub.  615  f. ;  cp.  Odyssey,  3.  44. 


THE   WORSHIP  OF  THE   GODS  75 

basis  the  calendar  becomes  a  religious  institution,  for  days  and 
years  are  reckoned  by  the  recurring  worship  of  the  gods.  Per- 
haps for  the  reason  that  these  occasions  of  worship  differed  in 
different  localities,  they  find  small  mention  in  the  Homeric  poems. 
The  feast  of  Apollo  at  Ithaca,  which  is  in  progress  at  the  time  of 
the  trials  of  Odysseus's  bow,  is  an  indication,  if  any  proof  be 
needed,  that  the  practice  of  observing  set  days  as  religious  festi- 
vals dates  back  to  early  times.1  In  general,  however,  sacrifices 
are  described  as  taking  place  when  men  are  passing  some  sacred 
spot,  or  in  connection  with  the  main  meal  of  the  day,  or  in  times 
of  special  need;2  as  the  gods  are  divested  of  local  features  in 
the  epic,  so  local  occasions  of  worship  are  neglected  in  favor  of 
occasions  universally  recognized. 

In  the  periods  of  which  we  have  fuller  information,  it  becomes 
clear  that  the  Greeks  laid  much  stress  on  sacred  times.  There 
are  no  traces  of  anything  like  the  Jewish  Sabbath  or  the  Christian 
Sunday ;  in  its  stead  each  state  had  a  series  of  religious  festivals 
which  occurred  at  irregular  intervals  through  the  year.  Many  of 
these  caused  little  or  no  interference  to  regular  business ;  many, 
on  the  other  hand,  were  of  sufficient  importance  to  involve  a  sus- 
pension of  public  and  private  business  in  favor  of  the  festival. 
The  Athenians  set  aside  more  than  fifty  days  each  year  specifically 
for  public  worship  of  the  gods,  and  only  one  day  in  the  year,  it  is 
said,  was  without  its  appointed  offering  to  some  god.3  Certain 
days  in  each  month  were  sacred  to  a  god,  the  first  and  seventh 
to  Apollo,  the  fourth  to  Hermes  and  to  Aphrodite,  the  sixth  to 
Artemis,  the  third,  thirteenth,  fifteenth,  and  twenty-eighth  to 
Athena:.4  Each  shrine  had  a  monthly  or  an  annual  festival  vary- 
ing in  importance  with  the  character  of  the  shrine  :  it  might  be 
some  simple  offering  shared  only  by  a  few  people  of  the  neighbor- 
hood ;  it  might  be  the  Panathenaea  or  the  Eleusinia,  national 
feasts  that  lasted  for  days,  splendid  with  processions  and  sacrifices, 

1  Iliad,  9.  534 ;    Odyssey,  20.  156,  276  f. 

2  Iliad,  8.  238 ;  2.  402  f. ;   Odyssey,  14.  421 ;  9.  551 ;  Iliad,  7.  177. 

8  Thucydides,  2.  38  and  schol.  4  Schoemann,  GriecA.  Alt.  2.  456. 


76  GREEK   RELIGION 

solemn  with  mysterious  ritual  (eoprat,  Travi/yv/jets) -1  The  different 
elements  that  entered  into  this  worship  will  be  considered  in  the 
following  sections.  Finally  biennial  and  quadrennial  festivals  were 
celebrated  with  special  pomp  at  Delphi,  Olympia,  and  other  great 
religious  centres.  Oftentimes  it  is  possible  to  ascertain  the  reason 
why  a  festival  was  celebrated  at  a  given  time,  or  at  least  the  reason 
assigned  by  the  worshippers  for  its  celebration  at  that  time.2  Agri- 
cultural festivals,  including  those  celebrated  to  Zeus  the  heaven- 
god,  Demeter,  goddess  of  the  grain,  Dionysus,  god  of  the  vine, 
Apollo,  protector  of  the  growing  crops,  etc.,  were  determined  by 
the  season  of  the  year.  Asclepius  was  worshipped  on  the  anni- 
versary of  the  establishment  of  his  cult  in  Athens ;  in  other  in- 
stances also  the  mythical  anniversary  of  the  comihg  of  the  god 
was  the  cause  assigned  for  the  festival.  The  birth  of  Artemis  and 
of  Apollo  was  celebrated  on  the  sixth  and  seventh  of  each  month  ; 
and  the  twenty-eighth  of  the  month  was  recognized  in  worship  as 
the  birthday  of  Athena.  At  Delphi  the  return  of  Apollo  in  the 
spring  and  that  of  Dionysus  in  the  autumn  were  the  occasion  of 
special  religious  rites.  In  all  these  instances  the  principles  hold 
good  that  the  gods  are  likely  to  appear  again  at  the  date  when 
they  have  appeared  at  their  shrines  before,  and  that  worship 
should  be  offered  to  them  when  their  presence  is  expected. 

3.  Sacred  Persons  ;  Priests  and  Attendants.  —  Although  priests 
are  mentioned  several  times  in  the  Homeric  poems,  all  the  sacri- 
fices of  which  an  account  is  given  are  performed  by  the  head  of  a 
household  or  by  a  king.  The  priest  (lepeus,  ap-rfrrip)  is  the  person 
who  presides  over  some  local  shrine,  directing  the  worship  and 
making  such  sacrifices  as  its  ritual  demands.  Such  a  priest,  at 
least  in  Troy,  was  appointed  by  the  people  ;  Theano,  priestess  of 
Athena,  and  Onetor,  priest  of  Idaean  Zeus,  were  married  ;  Hyp- 
senor,  priest  of  the  Scamander,  was  not  prevented  by  his  sacred 
office  from  taking  part  in  the  defence  of  the  city ;  Maron,  priest 

1  In  Appendix  II  is  given  a  list  of  the  more  important  festivals  of  Athens;  cp. 
also  A.  Mommsen,  Die  Feste  der  Stadt  Athen,  1898. 

2  Cp.  Schoemann,  Griech.  Alt.  z.  459  f. 


THE   WORSHIP   OF   THE   GODS 


77 


of  Apollo  at  Ismarus,  dwelt  with  wife  and  child  in  the  sacred  grove 
of  Apollo.1  In  virtue  of  his  office  the  priest  was  greatly  honored 
by  the  people,  "  honored  as  a  god  "  the  poet  says.  For  this  rea- 
son the  Aetolians  sent  priests  to  treat  with  a  besieging  enemy ; 


FIG.  17.  —  ATHENIAN  RED-FIGURED  VASE  PAINTING  (Stamnos,  British  Museum) 
The  priest  raises  his  left  hand  in  attitude  of  worship  before  the  altar,  above  which 

Nike  flies  to  fill  the  vessel  in  his  right  hand ;  opposite  him  are  youths  with 

spits  and  a  flute  player. 

Odysseus  protected  Maron  when  Ismarus  was  taken  ;  Chryses, 
trusting  in  the  respect  due  to  his  position,  entered  the  camp  of 
the  enemy  to  demand  of  the  Greeks  his  captured  daughter.2  It 
appears  from  these  instances  that  while  the  priest  was  not  cut  off 
from  the  activities  of  ordinary  life,  his  connection  with  the  god 
brought  him  such  privileges  and  immunities  as  might  be  granted 
to  the  special  servant  of  any  powerful  ruler. 

1  Iliad,  5.  76  f. ;  6.  298  f. ;   16.  604 ;   Odyssey,  9.  197  f. 

2  Iliad,  9.  575 ;  I.  II  f. ;   Odyssey,  g.  199. 


78  GREEK   RELIGION 

The  conception  of  the  priest  as  the  person  in  charge  of  some 
one  shrine  held  good  in  later  periods.  In  Greece  the  priest  was 
not  a  "  holy  man  "  ;  even  if  one  does  not  accept  literally  the  state- 
ment of  Isocrates  *  that  any  one  is  good  enough  to  become  a 
priest,  the  office  was  not  one  that  required  any  unusual  qualifica- 
tion in  morals  or  piety.  Nor  was  it  necessary  for  the  priest  to 
have  any  special  education ;  such  esoteric  knowledge  as  was 
needed  for  his  duties  he  could  easily  acquire  after  taking  office. 
Inasmuch  as  there  was  no  organic  connection  between  the  priests 
of  different  shrines,  and  there  were  no  priests  except  those  con- 
nected with  particular  shrines,  the  Greek  cities  were  free  from 
all  the  dangers  of  priestcraft.  At  the  same  time  religion  must 
remain  entirely  unorganized,  except  as  it  came  under  the  direction 
of  the  state. 

The  choice  of  a  priest  must  conform  to  conditions  which  dif- 
fered with  each  shrine.  Ordinarily  the  gods  were  served  by  men 
and  the  goddesses  by  women  ;  but  the  opposite  was  not  rare,  as 
at  Tegea  where  a  boy  was  priest  of  Athena,  and  at  Thespiae 
where  the  priestess  of  Heracles  was  a  young  woman.2  In  some 
places  young  boys  and  girls  were  demanded  by  the  ritual  as 
priests ; 3  in  some,  old  men  or  women  ;  more  commonly  the  priest 
was  a  person  in  the  prime  of  life.  Physical  perfection,  even  physi- 
cal beauty,  was  necessary  to  please  the  god  ;  an  "  unlucky  "  man 
would  not  be  chosen,  for  ill  luck  was  in  some  way  connected  with 
divine  anger;  again,  as  acting  for  the  state,  the  priest  must  be 
of  citizen  parents.4  Ordinarily  the  requirements  of  a  priesthood 
were  few  and  simple  ;  any  one  who  conformed  to  these  conditions 
might  be  appointed  to  the  office. 

The  term  of  office  for  a  priest  in  some  instances  lasted  as  long 
as  he  met  the  conditions  as  to  age  or  purity,  or  during  his  lifetime  ; 
not  infrequently  it  lasted  only  a  year.  The  method  of  filling  the 

l  Isocrates,  2.  6,  p.  16.  2  Pausanias,  8.  47.  3;  9.  27.  6. 

8  E.g.  Pausanias,  2.  33.2;  10.  34.  8. 

4  Plato,  Leg.  6,  p.  759  C ;  Antiphanes,  quoted  by  Athenaeus,  7.  55,  p.  300  A ; 
Dittenberger,  Syllogi,  594. 


THE  WORSHIP  OF  THE   GODS  79 

office  varied  with  the  requirements  of  each  shrine.  When  the 
worship  was  confined  to  a  particular  family  in  its  origin,  or  where 
one  family  had  performed  some  special  service  for  the  honor  of 
the  god,  such  as  giving  the  money  to  build  the  temple,  the  priest- 
hood was  often  limited  to  that  family.1  At  Eleusis,  for  instance, 
the  hierophant  was  always  one  of  the  Eumolpidae  ;  the  other  main 
officials  belonged  to  the  family  of  the  Kerykes.2  In  these  cases 
the  successor  to  a  priest  might  be  selected  within  the  family  by 
some  fixed  principle  (e.g.  the  oldest  son  of  the  former  priest),  or 
by  lot,  or  by  the  testament  of  his  predecessor.  Where  no  such 
limitation  existed,  the  king  or  in  a  democracy  the  people  appointed 
many  of  the  priests.3  Occasionally  the  right  to  a  priesthood  was 
sold  to  the  highest  bidder,  in  which  case  only  those  could  buy  the 
right  who  conformed  to  all  the  requirements  of  the  office.4  At 
Athens  probably  the  commonest  method  of  appointment  was  to 
cast  lots  among  approved  candidates.5  These  methods  of  appoint- 
ment are  further  evidence  that  the  priesthood  was  a  sacred  office 
only  in  a  very  limited  sense  of  the  term.  The  requirements  made 
in  behalf  of  the  god  were  few  and  simple ;  they  concerned  mainly 
the  physical  character  of  the  candidate  ;  when  these  were  satisfied, 
the  ritual  might  be  performed  so  as  to  secure  the  god's  favor. 
Naturally  no  elaborate  consecration  was  necessary  when  the  de- 
mands of  the  god  were  so  simple. 

The  emoluments  of  the  priest's  office  consisted  of  money  and 
of  other  privileges  which  had  a  money  value,  such  as  a  portion 
from  every  sacrifice,  in  addition  to  some  public  honors.  The 
prices  paid  for  the  priesthoods  in  the  city  of  Erythrae  varied  from 
10  to  4610  drachmas,  prices  that  probably  represent  the  annual 
net  value  of  the  office  plus  what  the  buyer  was  ready  to  pay  for 
the  honor  that  went  with  it.6  The  priestess  of  Athena  Nike  re- 
ceived in  money  50  drachmas  a  year ;  part  of  the  money  gifts  to 

1  E.g.  the  priesthood  of  Zeus  Karios,  Herodotus,  5.  66 ;  and  the  descendants 
of  Telines  at  Gela,  ibid.  7.  153. 

2  Dittenberger  in  Hermes,  20  (1885)  if.          8  Cp.  Dionysius  Halicarn.  2.  21. 
4  Inscription  from  Erythrae,  Dittenberger,  Sylloge,  600. 

6  Plato,  Leg.  6,  759  C ;  C.I. A.  II.  567  b,  622.         6  Dittenberger,  Sylloge,  600. 


8o 


GREEK   RELIGION 


Athena  Polias  fell  to  the  share  of  her  priestess  ;  at  some  shrines  a 
gift  to  the  priest  in  money  went  with  each  sacrifice.1  In  connec- 
tion with  the  administration  of  the  temple  property  the  priest 
might  receive  a  percentage  of  the  net  gain.2  Oftentimes  he  had 
the  right  to  a  dwelling  on  the  temple  ground,  and  was  abundantly 
provided  with  food  by  his  share  in  the  sacrifices.3  He  might  also 

have  the  use  of  temple  land 
for  grazing  purposes  or  farm- 
ing, and  a  personal  share  in 
other  rights  belonging  to  the 
temple.  Many  priests  were 
freed  from  military  services 
and  all  taxes,  though  this 
right  was  sometimes  more 
than  counterbalanced  by  the 
demand  that  the  priest  him- 
self contribute  toward  sup- 
porting a  magnificent  wor- 
ship. The  honor  shown  to 
a  priest  varied  with  the  im- 
FIG.  18.  — MARBLE  SEAT  FOR  THE  PRIKST  portance  of  his  shrine.  At 
OF  DIONYSUS  IN  THE  THEATRE  AT  A  h  of  fc 

ATHENS  * 

priests   received  front  seats 

at  the  theatre  and  at  public  functions ;  in  some  cities  the  years 
were  named  from  the  persons  holding  an  important  priest- 
hood ;  at  the  successful  termination  of  his  office  a  priest  might  be 
rewarded  by  the  people  with  a  gold  crown  or  even  with  a  statue.4 
That  a  man  should  undertake  the  office  of  priest  from  a  purely 
unselfish  motive,  a  desire  either  to  please  the  god  or  to  serve  the 
people,  was  a  conception  that  found  no  place  in  Greek  religion. 
Nor  is  the  reason  far  to  seek;  almost  all  worship  is  for  the  benefit 

1  Dittenberger,  Sylloge,  911.  2  Dittenberger,  Sylloge,  (x>\. 

8  Strabo,  12,  p.  575;    Schol.  on  Aristophanes,    Vesp.  695,  and  Plut.  1105;  von 
Prott,  Fasti  Graeci,  n.  6. 

*  C.I.A.  III.  261  f. ;  Thucydides,  2.  2;   C.I.A.  II.  477  b. 


THE   WORSHIP   OF  THE   GODS  81 

of  the  state,  tribe,  or  family ;  the  priest  who  acts  as  their  agent 
earns  his  pay  from  them,  and  ordinarily  he  does  not  gain  any 
enduring  personal  relation  with  the  god  whose  worship  he  super- 
vises. 

During  his  duties  as  priest,  a  man  often  received  a  special 
title,  Purphoros  at  Epidauros,  Stephanephoros  at  Magnesia  and 
elsewhere,  Loutrophoros  at  Sicyon.  The  Hierophant  at  Eleusis  is 
said  to  have  laid  aside  his  personal  name  while  holding  the  office. 
Commonly  the  priest,  at  least  while  officiating,  wore  an  unusual 
garment,  an  ungirded  robe  (chiton)  of  white  or  purple,  or  white 
with  purple  border.1  The  staff  of  the  priest,  the  key  of  the 
priestess,  sometimes  a  torch,  the  crown  or  the  fillet  of  the  god  on 
their  heads,  were  part  of  the  insignia  of  office.  Still  it  should  be 
remembered  that  neither  the  office  nor  its  insignia  as  a  rule  kept 
the  priest  from  the  business  of  ordinary  life. 

The  requirements  for  the  priests  in  the  matter  of  ceremonial 
purity  are  not  fully  known.  Every  worshipper,  like  Hector  in  the 
Iliad,2  must  avoid  approaching  the  god  with  soiled  hands  or  unclean 
garment ;  for  the  priest  this  requirement  was  no  doubt  rigidly 
enforced.  Many  priests  might  be  married ;  others  must  remain 
celibates,  at  least  during  their  term  of  office.  In  some  instances 
particular  foods  were  unclean ;  cheese  was  forbidden  the  priestess 
of  Athena  Polias,  fish  the  priestess  of  Hera  at  Argos,  beans  and 
goat  flesh  must  be  abjured  by  both  priest  and  worshipper  at  a 
shrine  of  Lindos  on  the  island  of  Rhodes.3  Such  requirements,  so 
far  as  we  know,  were  isolated  and  unusual,  the  remains  of  some 
ancient  "  taboo  "  at  these  shrines. 

Though  so  little  stress  was  laid  on  the  sacredness  of  the  priest, 
it  was  always  thought  that  he  had  a  connection  with  the  god  more 
intimate  than  that  of  other  worshippers.  When  they  came  to 
sacrifice  at  the  shrine,  bringing  their  petition  or  paying  a  vow,  they 
were  obliged  to  engage  the  services  of  the  priest  in  order  to  make 

1  Strabo,  14,  p.  648 ;  Athenaeus,  5,  pp.  211  B,  215  B.  2  Iliad,  6.  266. 

8  Strabo,  9,  p.  395  ;  Aelian,  De  nat.  anim.g.  65 ;  C.I.G.  Ins.  I.  789 ;  cp.  Plutarch, 
Symp.  8.  8.  4,  p.  730  D. 

GREEK    RELIGION  —  6 


82  GREEK   RELIGION 

sure  that  their  sacrifice  was  offered  in  due  form  to  gratify  the  god. 
For  the  regular  worship  of  the  shrine,  the  hymns,  prayers,  and 
sacrifices  demanded  by  its  ritual,  the  priest  was  alone  responsible.1 
He  directed  it  personally;  and  if  the  god  gave  evidence  of  his 
favor  to  the  people,  the  priest  was  the  one  to  be  honored.  More- 
over it  was  the  priest  who  preserved  the  shrine  from  impurity, 
guarded  its  votive  offerings  from  theft,  managed  (with  the  "  treas- 
urers," ra.fj.uiC)  whatever  properties  it  possessed.2  When  fugitives 
sought  asylum  there,  it  was  his  duty  to  receive  them  and  protect 
them  as  best  he  could  ;  when  masters  brought  slaves  to  be  freed, 
it  was  he  who  published  their  freedom  by  dedicating  them  to  the 
god,  or  buying  them  for  the  god.3  The  priest  took  up  questions 
of  impiety  and  brought  the  guilty  man  before  the  courts  in  the 
name  of  the  god.  As  a  matter  of  fact  he  did  represent  the  wor- 
shippers in  the  divine  presence,  and  he  might  speak  the  will  of 
the  god  to  men,  both  blessing  and  cursing  ;  4  his  office  was  dis- 
tinctly sacred  and  holy,  but  it  was  the  peculiarity  of  Greek  religion 
to  separate  rather  sharply  the  man  from  the  office  he  held,  with 
the  result  that  the  priest  was  sacred  only  at  such  times  as  he  was 
acting  in  his  official  capacity. 

So  far  as  the  other  officials  of  the  temple  are  concerned,5  we 
may  be  satisfied  to  indicate  the  tasks  which  fell  to  them.  In 
earlier  times,  and  later  at  small  shrines,  one  or  two  slaves  belong- 
ing either  to  the  shrine  or  to  the  priest  could  furnish  him  all  the 
help  he  needed  in  carrying  on  the  worship.  Only  the  large 
shrines  demanded  a  varied  list  of  attendants.  In  this  list  would 
be  included  (i)  heralds,  and  others  who  assisted  in  performing 
the  sacrifices,  e.g.  the  hieropoioi  ;  (2)  those  whose  duty  it  was 
under  the  supervision  of  the  priests  to  take  proper  care  of  the 


1  Plato,  Z^f.io,  909  D;  Aristotle,  2>r#«£.  7  (6).  8.  i8,p.  1322  b.  Cp.  CJ.A.ll.6io. 

2  Dittenberger,  Sylloge,  604. 

3  Foucart,  Mimoire  sur  I'  affranchisement  des  esclaves,  Paris,  1886;  Weil,  Ath. 
Mitth.  4  (1879)  25  f. 

4  [Lysias]  6.  51,  p.  107;  cp.  Plato,  Politicus,  290  C,  for  the  distinction  of  priest 
and  seer  (ji&vrui). 

6  Aristotle,  De  repub.  7  (6).  8.  18  f.,  p.  13225. 


THE   WORSHIP   OF  THE   GODS  83 

temple  and  its  utensils,  the  sacred  precinct,  and  the  properties  of 
the  shrine  (VCWKO/HM)  ;  and  (3)  the  officials  who  under  the  priest 
managed  the  finances  of  such  shrines  as  had  any  considerable 
property  (ie/oora/iuu,  KaAa/oerai).  To  this  list  might  be  added 
musicians,  and  those  who  were  appointed  to  perform  some  special 
function  at  one  of  the  greater  festivals  (e.g.  dppr)<f>6poi  and  Kavt]- 
<f>6poi  at  the  Panathenaea).1 

In  addition  to  the  priests  and  attendants  who  were  always 
attached  to  some  one  shrine,  there  were  state  officials  of  religion 
whose  duties  were  more  general.2  The  kings  at  Sparta  and  the 
archon  eponymos  at  Athens  had  a  general  supervision  of  all  cult 
matters ;  in  particular,  cases  of  sacrilege  were  tried  before  them, 
on  complaint  of  priest  or  citizen.  When  a  new  cult  was  to  be 
established  or  some  important  change  made  in  ritual,  the  senate  and 
the  people  voted  on  the  question;  either  the  priest  or  some 
special  commission  executed  their  decision.3  A  commission  of 
hieropoioi  at  Athens  (tepoTroiot  icar'  cviavrov)  provided  the  victims 
for  some  of  the  greater  sacrifices  and  had  some  supervision  of  the 
administration  of  all  the  temples ;  other  state  commissions  were 
appointed  regularly  (e.g.  on  temple  repairs,  tepwv  eTrio-Keuacrrai' )  with 
more  specific  functions.4  Some  of  the  state  officials  retained  the 
duty  of  the  earlier  kings  to  sacrifice  on  behalf  of  the  people.  The 
prytanies  offered  sacrifices  at  the  opening  of  an  assembly,  the  pole- 
march  sacrificed  to  Artemis  and  Enyalius,  the  generals  (orpaT^yot) 
sacrificed  for  the  army.5  These  religious  duties  of  state  officials 
were  only  secondary.  In  general  the  organization  of  religion 
crystallized  about  the  individual  shrines  ;  it  was  the  duty  of  the 
state  to  give  such  supervision  as  was  necessary  to  keep  up  in  due 
form  the  ritual  at  these  shrines. 

4.  Forms  of  Worship  :  (a)  Prayers,  hymns,  curses,  oaths.  — • 
In  the  Homeric  poems  a  wish  is  often  accompanied  by  an  appeal 

1  C.I.G.  2715 ;  Aristotle,  Athen.  Pol.  18 ;  Pausanias,  i.  27.  3 ;  C.I.A.  III.  917-918. 

2  Aristotle,  Athen.  Pol.  30;  Schoemann,  Griech.  Alt.  2.  433  f. 

3  Hermes,  21  (1886)  91, 1.  9;   C.I.A.  II.  477  b. 

4  Cp.  Schoemann,  Griech.  Alt.  2.  427  f.  and  references. 

6  C.I.A.  II.  392,  408;  Aristotle,  Athen.  Pol.  58;   C.I.A.  II.  302. 


84  GREEK   RELIGION 

to  the  greater  gods, "  Father  Zeus  and  Athena  and  Apollo,"  "  May 
Athena  grant  me  power  in  war,"  "  Lord  Zeus,  may  Telemachus  be 
blessed  among  men  and  gain  his  heart's  desire ;  " *  such  simple 
prayers  constantly  express  the  poet's  conception  of  man's  depen- 
dence on  the  gods.  Prayer  or  a  prayer-hymn  regularly  accom- 
panies the  sacrifice  to  express  the  attitude  of  the  worshipper  and 
the  special  purpose  of  the  sacrifice.  It  may  consist  of  a  joyful 
paean,  a  chant  of  worship  (oAoAvy?/) ,  or  a  formal  petition.2  Prayer 
is  appropriate  also  when  some  token  may  indicate  the  presence  of 
the  gods  or  when  one  passes  a  shrine.  In  dire  need  the  heroes 
seek  divine  help,  Chryses  when  his  daughter  is  refused  by  Aga- 
memnon, the  Trojan  women  when  Hector  tells  of  the  army's 
repulse,  Odysseus  worn  out  with  swimming  or  fearing  the  out- 
come of  the  struggle  with  the  suitors;4  the  heroes  prayed  in 
need,  and  in  most  instances  help  came.  Nor  should  the  regular 
worship  at  the  principal  meal  of  the  day  be  forgotten,  nor  Odys- 
seus's  prayer  before  retiring  at  night.5 

The  choice  of  the  god  to  whom  prayer  was  made  depended  on 
what  god  was  nearest ;  nearest  in  place,  nearest  in  ties  of  personal 
relation,  or  nearest  in  his  interest  in  the  subject  of  the  prayer.6 
It  is  part  of  the  epic  conception  of  Zeus  that  prayer  was  offered 
to  him  more  frequently  than  to  any  other  god. 

The  longer  and  more  formal  prayers7  included  (i)  an  invoca- 
tion citing  some  titles  of  the  god  and  perhaps  mentioning  the 
sphere  of  his  activity;  (2)  an  alleged  ground  for  answering  the 
prayer  —  former  sacrifices  to  the  god,  former  answers  to  prayer  by 
the  god,  or  an  appeal  to  his  pity;  and  (3)  the  petition  proper. 
The  reason  why  prayer  should  be  answered  was  in  almost  every 
instance  the  bond  which  united  the  man  and  his  god  ;  it  was  not 
a  bargain,  do  ut  des,  but  a  social  relation,  cemented,  to  be  sure, 
by  mutual  gifts. 

1  Iliad,  4.  288;   Odyssey,  j.  311;  Iliad,  17.  561 ;   Odyssey,  17.  354. 

2  Iliad,  i.  473;   Odyssey,  4.  767.  8  Odyssey,  20.  112;   13.  356. 
4  Iliad,  1.37  f.;  6.  115,  240;   16.  514  f.;   Odyssey,  5.  444  f. ;  20.  98. 

6  Odyssey,  12.  337.  8  Odyssey,  13.  356;  20.  100;  Iliad,  16.  227  f. 

.  //tad,  I.  39 ;   i.  451 ;  5.  115 ;  16.  333 ;  j6.  514 ;    Odyssey,  2.  262, 


THE  WORSHIP   OF  THE   GODS  85 

The  religiousness  of  prayer  in  the  epic  lies  in  the  frank,  full 
recognition  that  "  all  men  need  the  gods." 1  When  Hector  es- 
caped him,  Diomedes  assumed  that  he  must  have  prayed  to 
Apollo  before  entering  the  battle ;  the  man  who  prayed  to  the 
immortals  did  not  come  in  last  in  the  race  or  fail  with  the  bow ; 
the  wall  which  the  Greeks  made  without  prayer  could  not  prove 
a  protection  for  them.2  Any  deeper  or  more  personal  feeling 
than  would  be  exhibited  toward  a  powerful  and  kindly  human 
chief  is  not  suggested.  Even  the  striking  passage  on  "  Prayers 
of  penitence  .  .  .  daughters  of  great  Zeus  .  .  .  that  have  their 
task  to  go  in  the  steps  of  sin  ...  to  heal  the  harm,"3  out  of  line 
as  it  is  with  the  main  spirit  of  the  poem,  hardly  suggests  that 
prayer  opens  the  way  to  any  intimate  spiritual  relation  with  the 
gods. 

It  so  happens  that  later  literature  does  not  contain  many  exam- 
ples of  prayers,  though  the  Attic  drama  still  shows  epic  influence 
in  this  particular.4  Men  -pray  to  the  gods,  for  from  the  gods  come 
all  good  things.  It  was  especially  at  the  beginning  of  any  new 
undertaking  that  the  need  of  divine  help  was  felt.  At  daybreak 
Helios  was  greeted  with  prayer;  dinner  began  and  ended  with 
prayer;  a  prayer  was  offered  when  men  entered  the  athletic 
games,  or  went  on  a  hunt,  that  they  might  be  successful ;  prayers 
were  offered  before  exhibitions  in  the  theatre,  at  the  opening  of 
the  assembly,  and  especially  when  setting  out  for  war ;  the  farmer 
prayed  when  he  began  ploughing,  and  offered  his  first-fruits  with 
thanks  to  the  gods  ; 5  Demosthenes  began  his  oration  on  the  crown 
with  a  prayer  that  the  judges  might  be  guided  to  a  just  decision  by 

1  Odyssey,  1.48.  3  Iliad,  23.  546 ;  23.863;  7.448-463. 

8  Iliad,  9.  502  f. 

4  E.g.  Aeschylus,  Suppl.  627  f.;  Sept.  Theb.  146  f.;  Aristophanes,  Equit.  551  f.; 
Nub  563  f. ;  cp.  Xenophon,  Oecon.  6.  I. 

6  Before  a  new  undertaking,  Plato,  Tim.  27  C ;  Leg.  712  B ;  Daybreak,  Plato, 
Symp.  220  D ;  Leg.  887  E;  Meals,  Diotogenes  in  Stobaeus,  Flor.  43. 130;  Xenophon, 
Hell.  4.  7.  4;  Hunt,  Arrian,  Cyneget,  34;  Xenophon,  Cyneget,  6.  13;  Theatre,  De- 
mosthenes, 21.  51-52;  Assembly,  Aeschines,  i.  23;  Thucydides,  8.  70;  War,  Thu- 
cydides,  2.  74;  6.  32;  Farming,  Hesiod,  Erga,  336;  Diodorus  Sic.,  Exc.  23.  13. 


86  GREEK  RELIGION 

the  gods,  and  we  are  told  that  Pericles  never  spoke  without  a 
prayer  that  he  might  "  utter  no  unfitting  word." l  In  the  orators 
the  phrase  "pray  to  the  gods"  means  hardly  more  than  "de- 
sire ;  "  2  such  is  the  natural  result  when  the  Athenians  prayed  for 
whatever  they  desired  with  little  thought  of  worship.  On  the  other 
hand,  Socrates  simply  prayed  the  gods  to  send  good  things,  on 
the  ground  that  they  knew  best  what  was  good ;  for  he  thought 
that  "  those  who  prayed  for  gold  or  silver  or  power  to  rule  or  any 
such  thing  "  were  asking  for  what  might  turn  out  to  be  either  good 
or  bad.8  A  fable  of  Babrius 4  illustrates  the  folly  of  prayer  for  par- 
ticular things  :  a  farmer  vows  sacrifices  to  Hermes,  Pan,  and  the 
Nymphs  in  case  he  finds  the  thief  of  his  cattle ;  the  thief  proves  to 
be  a  lion,  and  he  must  vow  yet  greater  sacrifices  to  escape  it  himself. 
Prayers  for  the  city  that  it  may  be  free  from  dissension,  trouble,  and 
untimely  death,  again  "that  the  Greeks  may  have  prosperity,"  that 
barley,  wine,  and  figs  may  be  abundant,  that  women  may  bear  chil- 
dren, that  the  citizens  regain  all  good  things  they  have  lost,  and 
that  weapons  of  war  be  no  longer  needed,5  —  such  prayers  show  a 
truer  sense  of  dependence  on  the  gods.  Only  a  few  writers  like 
Aeschylus  and  Pindar  and  Xenophon  give  any  real  spiritual  content 
to  prayer.6 

The  choice  of  the  right  god  when  one  prayed  was  no  light 
matter.  In  the  country  Socrates  prayed  to  Pan ;  Zeus  Boulaios 
received  the  prayers  of  the  assembly,  Zeus  Ktesios,  prayers  in  the 
home.7  Women  ordinarily  prayed  to  Demeter  and  Persephone, 
or  in  love  matters  to  Aphrodite.8  The  choruses  in  the  drama 
invoke  the  greater  gods  of  their  native  city.  Before  battle  men 

1  Demosthenes,  18.  i ;  Plutarch,  Pericles,  8,  p.  156. 

2  Eg.  Demosthenes,  3.  18 ;  18.  89. 

8  Xenophon,  Mem,  i.  3.  2.  Cp.  [Plato]  Alcib.  148  8-149;  Plutarch,  /nsf.  Lacon. 
27,  p.  239  A. 

*  Babrius,  23. 

6  Athenaeus,  15,  p.  694  C;  Aristophanes,  Pax,  1320  f;  cp.  Aves,  878  f. 

•Aeschylus,  Suppl.  670;  Pindar,  Olytn.  13.  115;  Pyth.  i.  29;  Nem.  8.  35; 
Xenophon,  Mem.  2.  2.  14. 

J  Plato,  Phaedrus,  279  B ;  Antiphon,  6.  45 ;  Isaeus,  8.  16. 

8  Aristophanes,  Thesm.  286  £. 


THE   WORSHIP   OF   THE   GODS  87 

prayed  to  the  Muses,  perhaps  because  they  were  attendants  of 
the  archer  god  Apollo.1  The  lead  plates  recovered  at  Dodona2 
show  that  one  of  the  frequent  questions  propounded  to  the  oracle 
was  the  question  as  to  what  god  should  be  invoked  for  aid  under 
some  special  conditions.  In  Homer  men  prayed  to  the  gods  with 
whom  they  had  some  personal  connection ;  in  later  times  they 
sought  the  god  presiding  over  that  special  province  in  which  their 
request  fell.  The  name  of  the  god,  however,  was  not  at  all  so 
important  as,  for  instance,  in  India  or  at  Rome. 

The  grounds  for  expecting  prayer  to  be  answered  were  much 
the  same  as  in  the  epic :  because  the  request  was  a  just  one, 
because  the  man  was  a  worshipper  of  the  god,  because  the  god 
pitied  his  need.3  Commonly  there  was  an  appeal  to  remember 
the  sacrifices  that  had  been  offered,  coupled  with  vows  of  special 
sacrifices  in  case  the  prayer  was  answered.  There  was  no  assurance 
in  the  mind  of  the  worshipper  that  the  god  would  hear  or  grant 
his  prayer.4  Impurity  or  sin  of  the  worshipper  might  stand  in  the 
way.  Some  things  in  the  rule  of  the  world  were  fixed  by  divine 
decree  and  could  not  be  changed  by  prayer.  Moreover  it  was 
necessary  that  the  man  work  with  the  god,  if  he  was  to  gain  his 
petition  :  the  carter  whose  wagon  was  stuck  in  the  mud  must  goad 
on  his  oxen  and  push  the  wheels  before  Heracles  would  help  him.5 

Thanksgiving  rarely  went  with  petition  as  a  part  of  prayer. 
When  a  state  was  freed  from  danger  a  special  sacrifice  was  offered 
(xapio-TT/piov) ,  and  in  a  few  instances  this  sacrifice  was  repeated 
year  after  year.6  The  individual  expressed  his  gratitude  to  the 
god  ordinarily  by  a  votive  offering.7  A  real  sacrifice  of  thanks- 

1  Plutarch,  Lycurg.  21,  p.  53. 

2  Carapanos,  Dodone  et  ses  mines,  pi.  34-36. 

8  Just  Cause,  Aeschylus,  Choepfi.  783;  Former  Worship,  Herodotus,  i.  87; 
Sophocles,  Electro,,  1376;  Future  Worship,  Aeschylus,  Eum.  287  f. ;  Personal 
Relation,  Isocrates,  9.  14;  Pity,  Aeschylus,  Suppl.  215. 

4  Pindar,  Olym.  8.8;  Xenophon,  Cyrop.  i.  6.  6;  Hesiod,  Erga,  725;  Aeschylus, 
Again.  396. 

5  Xenophon,  Cyrop.  i.  6.  5-6;  Babrius,  20. 

6  Plutarch,  de gloria  Ath.  7,  p.  349  F. 

J  See  §  5  infra,  p.  92  f.    Cp.  Xenophon,  Ages.  n.  2 ;  Anth.  Pal.  6. 174 ;  6.  203,  etc. 


88  GREEK   RELIGION 

giving  is  described  by  Xenophon :  the  prayer  is,  "  Zeus  Patroos, 
Helios,  and  ye  other  gods,  receive  these  offerings  because  ye  have 
granted  many  favors  and  as  the  expression  of  thanksgiving  for 
granting  me  guidance  by  omens." l 

Is  such  prayer  religious?  It  can  of  course  be  interpreted  as  a 
mere  bargain  with  the  gods ;  there  is  little  doubt  that  the  case 
sometimes  lay  thus  in  the  mind  of  the  worshipper ;  it  seems  to 
me,  however,  that  without  question  a  genuine  religious  feeling  did 
commonly  exist,  that  the  prayer  was  ordinarily  a  request  from  real 
gods  and  the  votive  offering  was  something  other  than  mere  pay- 
ment of  a  debt  incurred.  Certainly  the  prayers  for  moral  guidance 
and  help  which  occur  in  Pindar,  the  prayer  of  Xenophon's  knight 2 
that  he  may  please  the  gods  and  do  his  duty  in  thought,  word,  and 
deed,  and  many  prayers  in  the  Attic  drama,  rise  far  above  any 
mere  bargain  with  the  gods. 

No  sharp  line  exists  between  prayer  and  the  prayer-hymn.  The 
paeans  to  Apollo,  the  dithyrambs  to  Dionysus,  the  processional 
hymns  (TiyxxrooV),  the  hymns  sung  with  the  sacred  dance  about 
the  altar,  are  a  most  important  part  of  religious  worship.3  No 
doubt  each  temple  had  its  own  ritual  hymns.4  The  hymns  of 
Isyllus  at  Epidaurus  and  the  hymns  recently  found  at  Delphi  are 
examples  of  hymns  actually  used  in  worship.5  They  illustrate  how 
invocation  of  the  god,  recital  of  his  deeds,  and  petition  were  com- 
bined in  connection  with  sacrifice. 

When  men  appeared  before  the  gods  they  stood  with  bare  heads, 
or  in  extreme  need  they  might  grasp  the  feet  of  the  divine  image.6 
Their  attitude  expressed  trust  rather  than  humility  or  fear ;  the 

1  Xenophon,  Cyrop.  8.  7.  3 ;  cp.  4.  I.  z. 

2  Xenophon,  Hipp.  i.  i. 

8  Pausanias,  10.  7.  a;  Proclus  in  Photius,  Bibl.  985;  Athenaeus,  14,  p.  619  B. 

4  Aristotle,  Pol.  5  (8).  7,  p.  1341  b;  Plutarch,  de  mus.  6,  p.  1133  B;   C.I.G.  2715. 

6  Wilamowitz,  Isyllos  von  Epidauros,  1886 ;  Bull.  Corr.  Hell.  17  (1893)  561  f. ; 
18  (1894)  345  f. ;  19  (1895)  393  f.;  Fairbanks,  "The  Greek  Paean,"  Cornell  Studies, 
XII. 

8  E.g.  Sophocles,  Elec.  453;  Voullieme,  Quomodo  veteres  adoraverint;  "Atti- 
tudes of  Worship  in  Greece,"  The  Biblical  World,  1897,  98  f. 


THE  WORSHIP  OF  THE  GODS  89 

Greek  did  not  kneel  or  bow  his  head,  but  looked  toward  the  god 
with  glad  confidence.  In  presenting  a  sacrifice  he  raised  his  right 
hand,  palm  out,  as  though  he  would  touch  the  god ;  in  need  he 
held  out  both  hands,  palm  up,  as  though  he  would  grasp  the  god 
or  receive  the  gift  he  craved.1  Without  any  trace  of  the  mystical 
or  magical,  his  prayer  was  a  request  from  a  god  whose  interest  in 
him  and  care  for  him  he  did  not  question. 

The  curse  is  a  prayer  (dpa)  not  for  good  to  one's  self,  but  for 
evil  to  another,  a  form  of  prayer  common  among  the  Hebrews, 
though  it  finds  little  place  in  Christianity.  At  Athens  the  herald 
pronounced  a  curse  on  traitors  at  the  opening  of  each  assembly ; 
on  criminals  who  were  beyond  the  reach  of  direct  punishment  by 
the  state,  punishment  was  invoked  from  the  gods ;  temples  were 
protected  by  curses  against  any  who  should  desecrate  them.2  Thus 
a  curse  was  pronounced  by  the  Eumolpidae  on  the  absent  Alci- 
biades  for  sacrilege,  and  when  he  was  acquitted  of  the  charge  the 
curse  was  formally  withdrawn.3 

The  curses  of  individuals  belong  to  a  different  sphere.  It  is 
characteristic  of  the  unorganized  state  of  Greek  religion  that 
Olympian  gods  were  not  invoked  in  these  curses,  but  that  the 
magical  element  was  in  the  ascendant.  Where  the  appeal  for  ven- 
geance was  made  to  gods,  it  was  directed  to  the  gods  of  the  lower 
regions.4  It  was  not  enough  to  utter  the  curse  ;  in  order  to  make 
it  truly  effective  it  was  written  on  lead  tablets  and  buried  by  the 
house  of  the  cursed  person  or  in  the  shrine  of  some  chthonic  god.5 
"  I  bind  tongue,  hands,  feet,  etc.  of  A.  B."  is  a  common  formula  ; 
the  reason  for  the  curse  is  omitted.  Oftentimes  the  writing  is  con- 
fused, confused  enough  to  puzzle  the  person  against  whom  it  is 
directed,  but  clear  enough  for  the  gods  to  understand. 

A  third  group  includes  curses  against  those  who  might  disturb 

1  E.g.  Iliad,  5.  174 ;  Euripides,  Elec.  592. 

2  Demosthenes,  23. 97 ;  Isocrates,  4. 157 ;  Dittenberger,  Sylloge,  584 ;  C.I.G.  2919. 
8  Diodorus  Sic.  13.  69 ;  Plutarch,  Alcib.  22,  p.  202;  33,  p.  210. 

4  Iliad,  9.  566  f. ;  but  cp.  Odyssey,  17.  494. 

6  C.I.G.  5773;  Newton,  Discoveries  in  Cnidos,  II.  2.  720 f. ;  Wiinsch,  Defixionum 
tabellae  Atticae. 


90  GREEK  RELIGION 

a  grave,  either  to  rob  it  of  valuables  or  to  place  in  it  the  corpse  of 
one  who  had  no  right  there.  Curses  invoking  the  vengeance  of 
the  gods  of  the  dead  on  those  who  disturbed  the  grave  are  not 
infrequently  found  buried  with  the  dead.1 

The  oath  is  nothing  but  a  curse  which  a  man  or  a  group  of  men 
place  on  themselves  in  case  they  break  their  word.     In  the  epic 


FIG.  19.  —  RELIEF  FROM  THE  ASCLEPIEUM  AT  ATHENS 

The  worshipper  at  the  left  grasps  the  altar  with  his  right  hand  in  the  presence 
of  Asclepius  and  his  daughter  Epione. 

Achilles  and  Hector  swear  by  their  sceptres  that  they  are  stating 
the  truth  ;  Agamemnon  invokes  the  gods  to  punish  him  as  a  per- 
jurer if  he  has  harmed  Briseis ;  when  the  issue  of  war  is  staked  on 
a  duel,  wine  is  mixed  and  poured  out,  and  sheep  are  slain,  with  a 
prayer  to  Zeus,  the  all-seeing  sun,  rivers,  and  the  earth,  that  they 

1  Rohde,  Psyche,  630  f.  and  references  there  cited. 


guard  the  oath.1  The  ritual  is  symbolic,  for  the  prayer  is  added 
that  the  perjurer's  blood  may  be  poured  out  like  the  wine,  that  he 
may  die  like  the  sheep.  The  skill  in  false  swearing  which  Hermes 
gave  Autolycus  seems  to  be  the  power  to  deceive  his  associates 
without  rendering  himself  liable  to  the  curse  of  the  oath.2 

The  form  of  the  oath  in  Greece  was  to  pledge  something  valu- 
able, the  sceptre  as  the  sign  of  royal  power,  or  one's  life,  or  one's 
welfare,  or  one's  children,  with  a  prayer  that  the  gods  take  them  away 
if  the  oath  were  broken.3  In  treaties  between  states  it  was  custom- 
ary to  invoke  as  witnesses  one  or  more  of  the  chief  gods  of  each 
state.  In  common  life  at  Athens,  if  one  may  judge  from  the  com- 
edies of  Aristophanes,  Poseidon  was  frequently  invoked  in  oaths. 
The  oath  of  Socrates,  "  by  the  goose,"  was  a  satire  on  the  ready  use 
of  oaths  by  his  countrymen.  Very  solemn  oaths  were  taken  at  a 
shrine,  sometimes  grasping  the  altar  of  the  god,  as  though  to  be  sure 
the  gods  heard  the  oath.4  As  the  Homeric  heroes  shed  blood  and 
poured  out  wine  with  an  oath  as  symbolizing  the  death  that  should 
come  to  them  if  their  oath  were  broken,  so  Olympian  gods  swore 
by  the  Styx,  the  river  of  death,  as  if  invoking  death  on  the  god 
who  swore  falsely.5 

At  Athens  citizens  swore  allegiance  to  the  state,  every  official 
took  oath  on  entering  and  leaving  office,  and  the  oath  was  ad- 
ministered to  those  who  came  before  the  courts.  As  the  officials, 
in  particular  the  jurors,  were  numerous,  this  form  of  oath  was  far 
more  common  than  in  our  own  day.  Perjury,  however,  was  not 
punished  by  the  state ;  the  oath  remained  a  matter  of  religion, 
binding  only  on  those  who  feared  the  gods. 

The  ordeal  may  be  regarded  as  a  form  of  oath.6  The  guards  in 
Sophocles's  Antigone  are  ready  to  take  hot  irons  in  their  hands,  to 
go  through  fire,  or  to  swear  by  the  gods  that  they  are  guiltless. 

1  Iliad,  i.  233;  10.  321 ;  9.  132;  3.  103  f.,  269  f.  2  Odyssey,  19.  396. 

8  Sophocles,  Track.  1189;  Lysias,  12.  10;  32.  13;  Lycurgus,  Leocr.  79. 

4  Andocides,  i.  98,126;  Thucydides,  5.  50 ;  Lycurgus,  Leocr.  20 ;  Demosthenes, 
23.  68. 

5  Hesiod,  Theog.  784  f. ;  cp.  Dummler,  Delphika,  1894. 

6  Sophocles,  Ant.  264  f. ;  Pausanias,  7.  25.  8 ;  cp.  Bekker,  Charikles,  i.  278  t 


92 


GREEK  RELIGION 


To  drink  the  blood  of  a  bull  is  mentioned  as  a  characteristic 
Greek  ordeal.1  The  references  to  such  ordeals  in  which  a  man 
submits  his  case  to  the  gods  are  few,  nor  does  the  practice  find 
any  place  in  Greek  courts  of  law. 

5.   Forms  of  Worship :    (b)     Votive  offerings,  processions,  ath- 
letic contests. — The  Greek  votive  offering  was  a  gift  to  some  god, 

ordinarily  in  acknowledg- 
ment of  special  blessing.2 
It  was  often  promised 
beforehand,  as  Odysseus 
promised  to  make  rich  gifts 
(the  arms  of  Dolon  and  a 
sacrifice)  to  Athena,  and 
Hector  vowed  to  decorate 
Apollo's  temple  with  the 
arms  of  the  conquered.3 

rr~_,.r_l~~~'~  ~~^~\^l\      In  great  need  Hecabe  car- 
L'W-UJ3'"          L_-J£^.71      ned   a   beautiful  garment 

to  the  temple  of  Athena 
and  laid  it  on  the  knees  of 
the  goddess  to  secure  her 
favor.4  When  Telemachus 
thinks  Odysseus  a  god,  he 

prays,  "Be  gracious,"  and  promises  sacrifices  and  golden  gifts ;  so 
the  companions  of  Odysseus  think  to  propitiate  Helios.5  Gar- 
ments and  gold  accompany  the  thank-offerings  of  Aegisthus ; 
Achilles  offers  to  Patroclus  the  hair  which  had  been  vowed  to 
Spercheius  in  case  he  returned  home  in  safety ;  a  tithe  of  agri- 
cultural products  is  mentioned  in  the  story  of  Artemis  and  the 
Calydonian  boar.6  In  a  word  men  appear  before  a  god,  as  before 

1  Aristophanes,  Et/uit.  83;  Pausanias,  7.  25.  13. 

2  See  Schoemann,  Griech.  Alt.  2.  218  f. ;   Reisch,  Die gruchische  Weihgeschenke ; 
and  especially  Rouse,  Greek  Votive  Offerings,  1902. 

8  Iliad,  10.  463,  570;  7.  81  f.  4  Iliad,  6.  303. 

6  Odyssey,  16.  185  ;  12.  346  f. 

•  Odyssey,  3.  274 ;  Iliad,  23.  146,  cp.  10.  15 ;  9.  534. 


FIG.  20.  —  RELIEF  FROM  THESSALY  (Thebes) 

Two  locks  of  hair  hang  in  a  niche  below  the 
inscription  "  Philombrotus,  Apthonetus, 
(sons)  of  Deinomachus,  (to)  Poseidon." 


THE   WORSHIP   OF   THE   GODS 


93 


a  king,  with  some  gift ;  the  purpose  may  be  to  secure  the  god's 
favor,  or  it  may  be  to  maintain  friendly  relations,  as  when  the 
host  sends  away  his  guest  with  a  gift. 

In  later  times  the  votive  gift  is  either  a  thank-offering,  pure 
and  simple,  or  the  payment  of  a  vow.  Such  gifts  were  offered  by 
the  state  in  gratitude  for  signal  divine 
favor,  such  as  victory  in  war  or  delivery 
from  pestilence;  tithes  or  first-fruits 
were  also  brought  to  certain  shrines  in 
gratitude  for  the  regular  harvests.  At 
the  shrine  of  Demeter  at  Eleusis,  for 
instance,  offerings  of  the  first-fruits  were 
received  regularly  from  many  Greek 
states  and  constituted  a  considerable 
part  of  the  regular  income  of  the 
shrine.1  The  temple  of  Apollo  at 
Phigaleia  was  erected  in  gratitude  for 
deliverance  from  the  plague.2'  The 
statue  of  Apollo  the  Averter  by  Calamis,  FlG.  2I._CLAY  TABLET  FROM 
that  of  the  Locust  Apollo  (assigned  CORINTH 

to    Pheidias),    the    Hermes    Carrying    a    An  artist  is  represented  at  work 

ram  at  Tanagra,  commemorated  special  on  an  ecluestrian  statue- 
cases  of  divine  favor.3  The  victory  at  Marathon  led  the  Athenians 
to  build  a  treasure-house  for  votive  offerings  at  Delphi,  and  later  to 
erect  the  statue  of  Athena  Promachos  on  the  Acropolis.4  The 
temple  of  Zeus  at  Olympia  is  said  to  have  been  built  with  the 
spoils  of  war.5  The  arms  of  the  enemy  might  be  dedicated  in  a 
"trophy,"  or  hung  in  a  temple,  as  shields  were  fastened  on  the 
architrave  of  the  Parthenon.6  After  the  battle  of  Salamis,  ships 
were  dedicated  to  the  gods  ;  the  serpent  tripod  set  up  at  Delphi 
after  Plataea  is  one  of  the  most  interesting  of  these  offerings ; 


1  C.I.A.,  IV.  i.  2,  p.  59,  no.  27  b. 

2  Pausanias,  8.  41.  8. 

5  Pausanias,  5.  10.  2. 

6  Arrian,  Anab.  i.  16.  7  ;  Plutarch,  „ 


8  Pausanias,  i.  3.  4;   i.  24.  8 ;  9.  22.  I. 
4  Pausanias,  10.  n.  5;  I.  28.  2. 


^  i<j,  p.  273;  cp.  Pausanias,  5. 


94 


GREEK   RELIGION 


the   Colossus  of  Rhodes   was   an   offering   from   the    spoils    of 
war.1 

The  votive  gifts  of  individuals  illustrate  much  the  same  prin- 
ciple. It  is  probable  that  the  farmer  made  some  offering  of  first- 
fruits  to  the  gods ;  the  hunter 
and  fisher  man  dedicated  tokens 
of  their  success ;  merchants 
and  manufacturers  sought  favor 
of  the  gods  by  giving  speci- 
mens of  their  handiwork  or 
their  tools,  representations  of 
men  at  work,  and  occasional 
gifts  of  money,  if  not  regular 
tithes.2  Men  healed  from 
illness  expressed  their  grati- 
tude by  dedicating  an  image 
of  the  healing  god,  or  of  the 
snake  of  Asclepius,  of  the  cured 
member,  of  a  surgical  instru- 
ment, or  perhaps  some  utensil 
for  the  temple  service.3  The 
thirsty  soldier  dedicated  a 
metal  frog  to  indicate  how  he 
found  water ;  a  votive  lion  sug- 
gested the  shepherd's  escape 
from  danger ;  the  traveller 
rescued  at  sea  brought  to  the 
gods  many  a  token  of  his  grati- 
tude.* The  warrior  might 
offer  to  the  gods  either  arms 
taken  from  the  enemy,  or  the  arms  in  which  he  had  won  victory, 
or  some  relief  depicting  divine  aid  in  battle.5  The  successful 

1  Herodotus,  9.  80  f. ;  Pliny,  Nat.  Hist.  34.  41. 

2  Rouse,  Greek  Votive  Offerings,  39  f.  8  Rouse,  ibid.,  187  f. 
*  Anthol.  Pal,  6.  43 ;  6.  221 ;  Rouse,  ijid.,  226  f.  5  Rouse,  ibid.,  98  f. 


FIG.  22.  —  MARBLE  RELIEF 

A  man  whose  leg  has  been  cured  offers 
a  model  of  the  leg  to  a  god  of  healing. 


THE   WORSHIP  OF  THE   GODS  95 

athlete  dedicated  his  quoit  or  jumping  weights,  the  wreath  he  had 
won,  perhaps  a  statue  of  the  god,  or  a  statue  of  himself.1  So  the 
victors  in  other  contests  brought  to  the  gods  either  their  prizes, 
such  as  the  tripod  given  for  the  successful  tragedy  at  Athens,  or 
other  token  of  their  gratitude.  The  officials  who  were  honored 
with  a  crown  from  the  state,  dedicated  this  in  some  temple  where 
it  stood  as  a  memorial  of  their  honor.2  The  im- 
portant incidents  of  family  life,  marriage,  birth, 
puberty,  led  to  votive  gifts,  such  as  the  dolls  and 
maiden's  garments  dedicated  to  Artemis  before 
marriage.3  The  worshippers  at  Eleusis  sometimes 
dedicated  the  garments  in  which  they  had  been 
initiated  ;  an  ancient  votive  statue  represents  one 
Rhombos  or  Kombos  carrying  the  calf  he  had 
sacrificed  to  the  gods  ;  at  most  shrines  are  found  FlG  ^ VOTIVE 
dedicated  vessels  used  in  sacrifice,  models  of  FROG  FROM 
animals  sacrificed,  and  small  images  of  the  god  THE  PELOP°N- 

NESE 

worshipped  at  the  shrine.4     The  sword  of  Pelops, 
the  spear  of  Achilles,  the  necklace  of  Eriphyle, 

scribed   "  Amon 

the  cup  of  Nestor,5  were  among  the  votive  offer-      son  of  Sonous  to 
ings  pointed  out  in  temples  to  visitors  of  later      Brason"     (per- 


time. 


haps     a     local 


hero) . 
It  appears  from  the  above  summary  that  the  gifts 

of  the  state  were  likely  to  be  temples,  lands,  means  of  income,  or 
objects  to  adorn  the  shrine.  The  gifts  of  the  individual  had  more 
definite  reference  to  his  own  experiences.  He  might  give  an  image 
of  the  god;  more  often  he  brought  trophies,  crowns,  instruments  of 
his  craft,  a  representation  of  himself  as  warrior,  athlete,  craftsman, 
or  worshipper,  —  some  token  of  the  blessing  he  had  received  from 
the  god.  The  nature  of  the  gift  indicates  the  belief  that  the  gods 
were  like  men,  ready  to  help  dependent  friends  and  pleased  by 
some  token  which  was  brought  them  in  recognition  of  their  help. 

1  Rouse,  ibid.,  149  f.  8  Rouse,  ibid.,  240  f. 

2  Rouse,  ibid.,  259  f.  4  Rouse,  ibid.,  274  f. 
6  Pausanias,  6.  19.  6;  3.  3.  8 ;  9. 41.  2;  Athenaeus,  u,  p.  466  E. 


96  GREEK   RELIGION 

While  vows  and  votive  gifts  in  Homer  ordinarily  accompanied 
some  request,  the  fundamental  meaning  of  the  later  offerings  was 
the  recognition  of  the  god's  help  in  human  need ;  whether  they 
took  the  form  of  a  tax  on  man's  gain  (like  the  tithe),  or  of  a  pay- 
ment for  divine  help,  or  of  an  informal  gift  in  token  of  gratitude, 
all  alike  expressed  man's  sense  of  dependence  on  the  gods.  We 
have  seen  that  men  could  make  their  gifts  at  the  same  time  a 
means  of  honor  to  themselves.  With  the  degeneration  of  religious 
sentiment  the  votive  wreath  and  the  portrait  statue  lost  their 
religious  meaning  and  became  a  means  of  self-glorification. 

The  number,  value,  and  artistic  importance  of  the  votive  offer- 
ings which  were  accumulated  at  the  greater  shrines  of  Greece  made 
them  at  the  same  time  treasuries  and  museums.  According  to  an 
inscription  of  about  the  year  180  B.C.  the  temple  of  Apollo  on 
the  island  of  Delos  possessed  1600  vessels  of  gold  and  silver,  many 
of  them  valuable  for  their  inset  gems  and  artistic  reliefs  as  well  as 
for  their  weight  of  precious  metal,  in  addition  to  rings,  necklaces, 
crowns  or  wreaths  of  gold,  tripods,  statues,  etc.1  The  protection 
and  care  of  these  objects  brought  no  small  responsibility  on  the 
officials  of  the  temple. 

The  procession  and  the  celebration  of  athletic  contests  at  reli- 
gious festivals  may  be  mentioned  in  connection  with  votive  offer- 
ings, for  by  these  means  also  the  gods  were  honored  in  much  the 
same  way  as  human  rulers,  though  in  ancient  Greece  little  was 
known  of  processions  other  than  religious.  The  religious  proces- 
sion is  not  at  all  unfamiliar  to-day.  Tokens  of  worship  are  still 
carried  through  the  streets  by  earnest  throngs,  in  time  of  need 
or  of  joy  or  again  at  some  recurring  church  festival.  Thus  the 
church  still  expresses  homage  to  God  and  to  its  saints  as  a  state 
honors  its  ruler.  At  each  great  festival  the  people  gathered  in  a 
procession  which  conducted  to  the  shrine  the  animals  and  utensils 
for  sacrifice.  At  the  Panathenaea  the  new  robe  for  Athena  was 
carried  in  the  greatest  procession  of  all,  the  procession  pictured  on 
the  Parthenon  frieze.2  A  regular  procession  street  led  from  the 

1  Dittenberger,  Sylloge,  588.  a  Cp.  $  8,  infra,  p.  114. 


THE  WORSHIP  OF  THE   GODS  97 

gate  of  the  city  to  the  market-place,  and  then  on  to  the  entrance  of 
the  Acropolis.  Before  the  dramatic  representations  in  the  theatre, 
poet  and  actor  and  people  joined  in  solemn  procession  bringing 
sacrifices  to  Dionysus.  At  these  and  other  great  festivals  the  pur- 
pose of  the  procession  was  to  present  gifts  and  sacrifices  to  the 
gods  with  all  possible  honor  from  a  large  number  of  people. 

The  athletic  contest,  far  as  it  may  seem  from  our  conception 
of  religious  worship,  resembles  the  procession  in  that  it  also  was  a 
means  of  doing  honor  to  human  rulers.  In  the  Iliad  elaborate 
games  were  celebrated  by  Achilles  in  honor  of  his  dead  friend 
Patroclus.1  What  pleased  the  living  man  would  gratify  his  ghost ; 
thus  feasting  and  athletic  games  became  part  of  the  funeral  of  great 
men.  Perhaps  by  transfer  from  the  funeral,  perhaps  as  an  exhi- 
bition of  human  prowess  brought  as  an  offering  to  the  god,  such 
games  became  a  regular  part  of  the  great  religious  festivals.  They 
were  celebrated  to  Athena  at  Athens,  to  Demeter  at  Eleusis,  to 
Apollo  at  Delphi;  at  Olympia  they  quite  eclipsed  other  ele- 
ments in  the  worship  of  Zeus.2  In  the  Olympic  games  contests  in 
wrestling,  boxing,  running,  and  throwing  dated  back  to  very  early 
times ;  chariot  races  and  races  on  horseback  added  to  the  splen- 
dor of  the  festival  as  time  went  on,  and  the  number  of  contests  was 
increased  by  dividing  the  contestants  into  classes  by  age.  In 
the  great  games  of  Greece  (at  Olympia,  Delphi,  Nemea,  and  the 
Isthmus)  the  prize  was  simply  a  wreath  from  trees  sacred  to  the 
god.  The  character  of  the  prize,  the  religious  procession,  and 
finally  the  sacrifices,  kept  in  evidence  the  religious  character  of 
the  games  and  of  the  shrines  where  they  were  conducted. 

6.  Forms  of  Worship:  (c)  The  sacrificial  meal. — That  wor- 
ship should  consist  in  killing  pigs  or  bulls  with  elaborate  ceremony, 
or  that  blood  should  have  any  efficacy  in  appeasing  a  god,  is 
totally  foreign  to  our  religious  ideas;  symbolism  borrowed  from 
the  worship  of  the  ancient  Hebrews  alone  gives  it  some  place  in 
religious  thought  to-day.  In  almost  every  form  of  primitive  reli- 
gion, however,  the  communion  meal  in  which  gods  and  men  share 

l  Iliad,  23.  257  f.  2  Cp.  §  8,  infra,  p.  117  f. 

GREEK   RELIGION  —  7 


98  GREEK   RELIGION 

consecrated  food,  and  the  use  of  blood  to  pacify  angry  deities  or 
to  remove  some  taint  from  man,  constitute  a  large  part  of  worship. 
The  communion  meal  will  be  considered  in  this  section,  propitia- 
tory and  mystic  sacrifice  in  the  following. 

The  normal  form  of  worship  in  Greece  consisted  in  the  sacrifice 
of  a  domestic  animal  at  the  altar  with  hymn  and  prayer  ;  parts  of  it 
were  burned  for  the  god,  the  rest  eaten  by  the  worshippers.  The 
word  "  to  sacrifice "  (upeveiv)  is  regularly  used  as  meaning  "  to 
kill  for  food."  The  practice  of  killing  animals  in  a  household 
sacrifice  when  meat  was  needed  continued  in  the  Athens  of  Peri- 
cles ;  even  when  meat  was  to  be  sold  in  a  butchershop,  some 
practices  of  sacrifice  were  probably  observed.1 

In  the  epic  the  occasions  of  sacrifice  were  (i)  in  time  of  danger 
or  before  some  important  undertaking,  and  (2)  at  any  banquet 
when  flesh  was  eaten.2  The  swineherd  Eumaeus  sacrificed  a  pig 
with  prayer  for  his  master,  that  he  might  have  meat  to  set  before 
the  unrecognized  Odysseus  ;  every  banquet  of  the  princes  began 
with  sacrifice  and  prayer.3  Special  banquet  sacrifices  were  insti- 
tuted when  a  god  indicated  his  presence  either  by  some  special 
sign  or  by  granting  success  in  war.  Before  setting  out  for  Troy, 
before  other  journeys,  before  battle,  this  type  of  sacrifice  was 
offered.4  A  banquet  sacrifice  was  successful  in  propitiating  Apollo, 
but  Odysseus  offered  a  ram  to  Zeus  in  vain.5  The  occasions  of 
sacrifice  in  Homer  are  in  harmony  with  the  view  of  the  gods  as 
superior  members  of  society  ;  when  the  gods  ate  with  men,  they, 
like  other  guests,  were  united  with  men  by  ties  of  guest-friendship. 

This  same  conception  held  good  later.  The  individual  sacri- 
ficed when  he  wished  meat  for  a  banquet.  The  events  of  do- 
mestic life  —  birth,  coming  of  age,  marriage  —  furnished  special 
occasions  of  sacrifice  and  banquet.  In  such  cases  the  sacrifice 

1  Plato,  Politia,  i,  p.  328  C  ;  Athenaeus,  14,  p.  659  F;  Artemidorus,  Oneir.  5.  2, 

P-  253. 

'2  Odyssey,  14.  250 ;  cp.  "  The  Significance  of  Sacrifice  in  the  Homeric  Poems," 
The  New  World,  1898. 

8  E.g.  Iliad,  2.  402  f. ;  i  r.  772.  4  Iliad,  2.  305  f. ;  2.  402  f. 

6  Iliad,  I.  457 ;   Odyssey,  9.  551. 


THE  WORSHIP  OF  THE   GODS  99 

would  regularly  be  performed  at  home.  When  a  vow  was  to  be 
paid,  the  worshipper  would  present  the  sacrifice  at  the  shrine  of 
the  god  to  whom  the  vow  was  made,  and  often  the  festal  meal 
would  take  place  at  the  shrine  itself.  In  the  regular  worship  of 
the  state,  sacrifices  of  this  type  were  offered  at  each  shrine  yearly 
or  monthly  in  accordance  with  the  religious  calendar  there  in 


PAINTING  (Stamnos,  Munich) 

A  bull  is  given  water  before  being  sacrificed ;  the  tripod,  which  was  given  as  a 
prize  in  dithyrambic  contests  in  honor  of  Dionysus,  indicates  the  occasion  of 
the  sacrifice. 

force.  Additional  sacrifices  were  called  for  when  some  impor- 
tant undertaking  was  begun  ;  if  an  expedition  proved  successful, 
or  the  state  received  other  special  marks  of  divine  care,  a  thank- 
offering  of  this  type  was  in  place.1  Often  a  vow  was  made  before 
the  battle,  as  at  Marathon  the  Athenians  vowed  to  sacrifice  to 
Artemis  as  many  goats  as  there  were  Persians  killed,2  in  which 

1  Thucydides,  8.  70;  Xenophon,  Hell.  7.  2.  23;  4.  3.  14.    Cp.  Lasaulx,  Stitdien 
ties  classischen  Altertums,  264  f.  2  Cp.  Xenophon,  Anab.  3.  a.  12. 


ioo  GREEK   RELIGION 

case  the  payment  of  the  vow  would  be  a  great  sacrificial  meal  of 
thanksgiving.  The  hekatomb  ("hundred  oxen")  early  became 
a  general  designation  for  the  great  sacrifices  offered  by  the  state. 
In  a  word  the  communion  meal,  the  "  meat  offering  "  of  our  Old 
Testament,  is  the  appropriate  offering  to  the  Olympian  gods  on 
all  occasions  except  one ;  when  they  have  clearly  shown  that  they 
are  angry,  man  does  not  propose  this  meal  which  he  shares  with 
the  gods.  Otherwise,  in  time  of  doubt  or  joy  or  as  part  of  daily 
life,  men  worshipped  the  gods  by  a  ritual  which  emphasized  the 
social  ties  uniting  them  with  the  gods. 

In  preparation  for  the  communion  meal,  it  was  necessary  first 
to  select  a  suitable  animal.  It  must  be  a  domestic  animal,  from 
the  flock  or  herd  raised  by  human  hand,  and  a  perfect  specimen 
of  its  kind.  At  some  shrines  the  sex,  age,  and  the  color  of  the 
victim  were  determined  in  the  ritual;  e.g.  at  the  Panathenaic 
festivals  cows  were  offered,  while  Poseidon  preferred  a  black  bull. 
Occasionally  the  ritual  required  a  special  kind  of  wood ;  in  sacri- 
fices to  Zeus  at  Olympia  only  white  poplar  was  used  on  the  altar, 
and  if  the  fire  became  defiled  by  the  presence  of  death  or  from 
any  other  cause,  pure  fire  must  be  procured,  it  might  be  from  a 
house  near  by,  or  from  Apollo's  shrine  at  Delphi.1  Then  those 
who  were  to  share  the  sacrifice  put  on  festal  array,  white  garments, 
and  wreaths  of  flowers  on  their  heads ;  the  animal  also  was  deco- 
rated with  garlands  and  sometimes  the  horns  of  oxen  were  cov- 
ered with  gold  leaf.2 

The  ritual  of  sacrifice  was  somewhat  as  follows :  Under  the 
direction  of  the  priest  (or  father  or  king)  a  basket  containing  the 
sacrificial  utensils  and  a  bowl  of  water  were  borne  around  the  altar 
from  left  to  right.3  After  the  water  had  been  consecrated  by 
thrusting  into  it  a  brand  from  the  altar,  the  worshippers  dipped 
their  hands  in  it,  and  it  was  sprinkled  on  altar,  victim,  and  offerer. 

1  Pausanias,  5. 14.  2 ;  Plutarch,  Arist.  20,  p.  331 ;  Bull.  Corr.  Hell.  18  (1894)  87, 92. 

2  Odyssey,  4.  759-766;    Aeschines,  3.  77;    Aristophanes,  Thesm.  447  f. ;    Odyssey, 
3.  426;   C.I. A.  IV.  i.  2,  p.  59,  no.  27  b. 

8  Euripides,  Elec.  800  f. ;  Aristophanes,  Pax,  948  f. ;  Lys.  1129;   Odyssey,  3.  441  f. 


THE   WORSHIP   OF  THE   GODS 


101 


Salted  barley-corns  from  the  basket  were  thrown  on  the  animal's 
head  and  into  the  altar  fire.  From  the  head  of  the  victim,  stand- 
ing unbound  before  the  altar,  a  lock  of  hair  was  cut  and  burned, 
and  libation  was  poured  on  the  altar  with  prayer.1  The  prelimi- 
nary rites  were  thus  completed. 

.  After  silence  had  been  proclaimed,  the  music  of  flutes  began, 
and  the  animal  was  slain.2  The  larger  animals  were  felled  with 


FIG.  25. —  ATHENIAN  RED-FIGURED  VASE  PAINTING  (Krater,  Boston) 

In  the  presence  of  "Teiresias"  and  several  attendants  the  sacrificing   priest  or 
king  is  about  to  sprinkle  barley-corns  on  the  altar. 

a  blow  from  the  sacrificial  axe ;  then  the  head  was  raised  toward 
heaven,  and  the  throat  cut  in  such  wise  that  the  blood  would 
spurt  on  the  altar,  or  would  be  caught  in  a  vessel  and  poured  on 
the  altar.  At  this  point,  in  Homer,  the  women  raised  a  cry  of 
worship  (oAoXuyT/).3  After  the  animal  had  been  skinned  and  cut 
up  the  inner  parts  were  first  disposed  of,  a  part  burned  on  the 

1  Aristophanes,  Thesm.  295 ;   Odyssey,  14.  421  f. ;  Iliad,  3.  273. 

2  Odyssey,  3.  443,  449;  Iliad,  I.  459;  cp.  Herodotus,  I.  132. 
«  Odyssey,  3.  450 ;  cp.  4.  767. 


102  GREEK  RELIGION 

altar  with  incense,  the  remainder  roasted  and  eaten.  If  the 
entrails  were  of  normal  shape  and  color,  it  was  an  omen  that 
the  sacrifice  was  acceptable  to  the  gods.1  In  the  epic,  men 
wrapped  the  thigh  pieces  (pypia)  in  fat  and  burned  them  on  the 
altar;  later  the  end  of  the  back  and  tail  (oo-<£vs),  along  with  other 
bones  on  which  more  or  less  meat  had  been  left,  were  burned 
with  a  libation.  Then  came  the  feast  in  which  the  offerers  shared 
the  roasted  meat,  while  music  and  dance  expressed  men's  joy  in 
the  service  of  the  god.  At  some  great  festivals,  the  whole  people 
shared  the  banquet  and  hundreds  of  victims  were  consumed. 

If  we  ask  the  question  as  to  what  of  real  worship  there  was  in 
butchering  an  animal  to  feast  on  its  flesh  with  song  and  carousal, 
several  answers  may  be  given.2  The  motive  might  be  fear,  as 
though  the  gods  were  hungry  wolves  diverted  from  attacking  men 
by  the  pieces  of  meat  thrown  to  them.  While  references  to  the 
envy  of  the  gods  lend  some  color  to  such  a  view,  yet  in  the  Greek 
banquet-sacrifice  the  gods  are  always  represented  as  benevolent 
beings,  ready  to  bless  men  who  did  them  honor.  There  is  no 
question  that  the  "fragrance  of  fat  thighs"  burned  on  the  altar3 
was  thought  to  lure  the  gods  to  the  presence  of  their  worshippers. 
So  Poseidon  left  Olympus  and  went  to  the  distant  Aethiopians  to  en- 
joy the  feasts  they  prepared,  and  on  another  occasion  all  the  gods 
went  there  on  the  same  errand.4  To  burn  a  portion  of  the  victim 
was  to  send  it  up  to  the  gods.  And  the  gods  were  pleased  both 
because  they  liked  the  food,  and  because  they  liked  to  be  honored 
with  splendid  ceremonial  and  abundant  victims.  In  general  the 
larger  the  sacrifices  the  more  one  might  count  on  the  divine 
favor  to  be  gained  by  means  of  them  irrespective  of  the  righteous- 
ness of  the  worshipper.5  Only  rarely  does  some  Greek  writer 
speak  of  the  spirit  of  the  worshippers  as  more  important  than  the 

1  See  Chap,  i,  $  6,  p.  49. 

2  Cp.  "  The  Significance  of  Sacrifice  in  the  Homeric  Poems,"  The  New  World, 
June,  1898. 

8  Eg.  Iliad,  8.  549.  4  Odyssey,  i.  22;  Iliad,  I.  423. 

6  Plato,  Politia,  2.  p.  362  C  ;  Iliad,  i.  65 ;  Odyssey,  3.  273 ;  cp.  Xenophon,  Anab.  5. 
7-32- 


THE   WORSHIP  OF  THE   GODS  103 

number  of  animals  offered.1  Mention  is  made  of  the  spirit  of 
piety  which  leaves  some  meat  on  the  bones  that  are  burned  on 
the  altar,  as  compared  with  the  mean  habit  of  scraping  the  bones 
clean.  In  origin,  it  would  seem  that  the  life  of  each  animal  was 
brought  to  the  altar  (i.e.  the  blood  was  sprinkled  on  the  altar) 
because  the  animal  was  in  some  sense  sacred  to  the  god.  Prac- 
tically the  sense  of  worship  lay  in  the  feeling  that  the  gods  shared 
the  banquet  with  men ;  the  gods  were  honored  when  men  dedi- 
cated to  them  flesh  and  bread  and  wine  to  be  shared  in  commun- 
ion meal ;  in  this  meal  men  gained  a  fresh  sense  that  the  gods 
were  present  with  their  worshippers  to  bless  them. 

Along  with  portions  of  the  animal  or  as  a  separate  sacrifice,  fruit 
or  cakes  were  sometimes  burned  on  the  altar  that  the  gods  might 
also  share  these  portions  of  the  feast.2  Occasionally  poor  people 
offered  cakes  in  the  shape  of  animals,  or  fruit  fixed  to  imitate  ani- 
mals, while  at  the  Diasia  in  Athens  these  were  the  only  sacrifices 
permitted.3  Instead  of  being  burned,  cakes  might  be  presented 
before  the  god  (like  the  Hebrew  shewbread)  and  later  eaten  by  the 
priests.  To  the  goddesses  of  nature,  Demeter,  Leto,  Artemis,  and 
the  great  mother  of  the  gods,  it  was  only  natural  to  offer  as  a  sac- 
rifice the  fruits  of  nature ;  in  the  worship  of  the  home,  fruit  and 
flowers  seem  to  have  been  the  regular  offering.4  With  this  gift  of 
fruit  and  flowers  should  be  mentioned  the  use  of  incense  ;  it  was 
burned  with  the  burnt  sacrifice  on  the  altar,  and  it  was  offered  in 
censers  (Ov/j-iaTypui)  in  the  temples  before  the  images  of  the  gods.5 

Libations  of  wine  mixed  with  water  are  frequently  poured  out 
to  the  gods.  The  epic  heroes6  pour  wine  on  the  altar  at  the  sac- 
rifice, and  at  the  banquet  a  libation  is  made  before  drinking.  A 

1  Isocrates,  2.  20;    [Plato],  Alcibiad.  13,  p.  150. 

2  Odyssey,  15.  222;  Athenaeus,  4,  p.  146  F  (Menander). 

8  Pollux,  1.30;  Suidas,  s.v.  /3oi>s  £/3§o/uoj;  Thucydides,  1. 126. 6,  and  schol.;  Pau- 
sanias  i.  26.  5 ;  8.  2.  3. 

1  Pausanias,  8. 37. 7 ;  Xenophon,  Anab.  5. 3. 9 ;  tirdpy/jLara,  Dittenberger,  Sylloge, 
630. 

5  Von  Fritze,  Die  Rauchopfer  bei  den  Griechen,  1894. 

6  K.  Bernhardi,  Das  Tiankopfer  bei  Homer,  1885. 


IO4 


GREEK   RELIGION 


vow  or  prayer  is  more  effective  if  it  is  attended  with  a  gift  of  wine 
to  the  gods ;  before  any  important  undertaking  if  a  burnt  sacrifice 
is  not  offered,  at  least  wine  is  freshly  mixed  and  poured  out  with 
a  prayer  for  success. 

In  later  usage  libations  at  the  sacrifice   and  at   the  banquet 
are  universal ;  the  practice  of  making  libations  of  wine  to  reen- 

force  a  prayer  is  not  so 
often  mentioned  as  in 
the  epic.  In  these  in- 
stances the  libation  is 
made  from  mixed  wine 
and  water,  since  the 
gods,  like  men,  did  not 
drink  wine  unmixed.1 
The  Athenians  offered 
a  mixture  of  milk, 
honey,  and  water  (with- 
out wine,  /AtXiKpaTov)  to 
such  lesser  gods  as  the 
Muse  Mnemosyne,  Eos, 
Helios,  Selene,  the 
Nymphs,  and  to  Aphro- 
dite Ourania.2  Zeus 


Hypatos  in  Athens  re- 


FIG.  26.  — ATHENIAN  RED-FIGURED  VASE 
PAINTING  (Kylix,  Athens) 

A  youth  with  kylix  and  pitcher  pours  a  libation  on 
an  altar ;  inscription,  "  Athenodotos  Kalos." 

ceived  no  animal  offer- 
ing and  no  wine.  The  Eumenides  and  gods  of  the  lower  world 
generally  received  "soothing  libations"  without  wine.3  In  some 
cults  it  is  possible  that  this  peculiarity  dated  back  to  a  time  when 
wine  was  not  yet  in  use ;  in  other  instances  it  may  be  due  to  the 
feeling  that  wine  is  not  "  soothing,"  not  a  suitable  drink  for  gods 
easily  made  angry. 

1  E.g.  Thucydides,  6.  32.  i. 

2  Schol.  Sophocles,  Oed.  Col.  100  (Polemon). 

8  Pausanias,  i.  26.  5;  Aeschylus,  Bum.  107;    Sophocles,  Oed.   Col.  too,  481; 
Euripides,  Iph.  Taur.  160  f. 


THE    WORSHIP   OF   THE   GODS  105 

7.  Forms  of  Worship :  (d)  Propitiatory  sacrifice,  purification. 
—  To  angry  gods  or  gods  easily  roused  to  anger  the  Greeks 
offered  sacrifices  very  different  from  the  glad  communion  meal 
described  in  the  preceding  section.  There  is  little  doubt  that 
human  sacrifice  was  occasionally  practised  by  the  Greeks,  though 
it  is  difficult  to  find  well  authenticated  cases  of  it  in  Greek  history. 
When  the  Greeks  set  out  for  Troy,  story  describes  the  sacrifice 
of  Iphigeneia,1  and  that  of  Polyxena  as  they  set  out  for  home. 
Creon  is  said  to  have  sacrificed  his  son  to  save  Thebes  from 
a  besieging  army,  while  Codrus  gave  up  his  own  life  to  save 
Athens  on  a  similar  occasion.2  Epimenides  is  reported  to  have 
sacrificed  a  youth  when  he  purified  Athens  from  the  plague. 
These  cases  are  mythical,  but  they  represent  the  principle  that 
when  the  lives  of  many  are  in  danger  from  war  or  plague,  the  vol- 
untary sacrifice  of  some  man  may  turn  aside  the  anger  of  gods. 
If  the  story  could  be  traced  to  some  earlier  authority  than  Plu- 
tarch, we  might  easily  believe  that  Themistocles  sacrificed  three 
captive  Persians  before  the  battle  of  Salamis.3  In  the  worship  of 
Zeus  Lykaios  in  Arcadia,  of  Zeus  at  Rhodes,  of  Apollo  at  Leucas, 
human  sacrifice  is  said  to  have  been  offered  up  to  the  time  when 
it  was  strictly  forbidden  by  the  emperor  Libanius.4  A  criminal 
condemned  to  death,  however,  was  the  victim ;  his  death  in  the 
service  of  religion  was  said  to  purify  the  city  from  evil.8 

In  actual  practice  the  propitiatory  sacrifices  before  a  battle  or 
a  voyage  were  of  animals,  sometimes  said  to  be  substituted  for 
men.  At  some  few  regular  centres  of  worship,  particularly  in  cults 
of  Dionysus  and  of  Artemis,  goats  or  cattle  were  also  said  to  be 
substituted  for  human  beings,  and  human  garments  were  put  on 
the  animals  as  if  the  gods  would  be  better  pleased  by  such  an 
illusion.6  It  is,  then,  entirely  possible  that  some  of  the  propitia- 
tory sacrifices  to  be  described  in  this  section  involved  the  sub- 

1  fOvaev  avrov  iraiSa  .  .  .  tirySttv  Qprjicluv  aTj/mrwc,  Aeschylus,  Agam.  1417. 

2  Euripides,  Phoen.  911  f. ;  Lycurgus,  Leocr.  86  f. 
8  Plutarch,  Themistocles,  13;  cp.  Aristides,g. 

4  Pausanias,  8.  2.  3  and  6;  Strabo,  10,  p.  452.        5  Harpocration,  s.v.  0ap/xa/c6s. 
6  Pausanias,  9.  8.  2;  Aeiian,  De  not.  anim.  12.  34;  Paroemiogr.graec.  i,  p.  402. 


io6  GREEK   RELIGION 

stitution  of  animals  where  men  had  once  been  sacrificed;  the 
principle,  however,  would  hold  good  in  an  extremely  small  num- 
ber of  cases,  and  can  in  no  sense  be  used  to  explain  this  type  of 
sacrifice.  As  for  the  fact  that  these  propitiatory  sacrifices  are  not 
mentioned  in  the  epic,1  it  can  hardly  be  explained  on  the  ground 
that  they  are  not  properly  Greek.  They  are  not  normally  offered 
to  the  Olympian  gods,  the  gods  of  the  epic,  consequently  there 
was  no  occasion  for  mentioning  them.  The  fundamental  fact  that 
the  epic  neglects  one  whole  side  of  Greek  religion,  the  worship  of 
local  spirits,  agricultural  deities,  and  the  dead,  together  with  magi- 
cal rites  and  propitiatory  rites,  must  be  considered  in  another 
connection.2 

The  ordinary  sacrifice  of  propitiatory  character  differed  from 
the  communion  meal  in  occasion,  in  ritual,  and  in  the  gods  to 
whom  it  was  offered.  The  communion-meal  offering  assumed  that 
the  gods  were  favorable,  whether  it  was  offered  when  they  had 
already  signalized  their  favor  or  before  some  important  undertak- 
ing. On  the  other  hand  the  propitiatory  sacrifice  meant  that  men 
felt  the  anger  of  the  gods  in  the  danger  or  trouble  which  was 
already  on  them ;  or  again  when  it  was  offered  before  battle  or 
before  a  voyage  or  before  sowing  grain,  it  was  intended  to  pacify 
the  possible  anger  of  the  gods  before  any  damage  had  been  done.3 
The  ritual  was  different.  A  black  animal  was  ordinarily  chosen  ; 4 
it  was  brought  to  a  low  mound  of  earth  («rx<xpa)  instead  of  the 
regular  altar ;  its  head  was  bowed  toward  the  earth  and  the  blood 
allowed  to  soak  into  the  ground,  for  the  spirits  of  evil  were  mainly 
spirits  of  the  world  below ; 5  most  important  of  all  it  was  not  tasted 
by  the  worshippers,  but  wholly  burned,  as  though  the  gods  took 
pleasure  in  its  utter  destruction.6  No  libations  were  made  with 
the  sacrifice,  nor  were  the  libations  on  other  occasions  to  these 

1  Apollo  is  propitiated  by  a  banquet  sacrifice,  Iliad,  i.  447  f. 

2  See  Part  II,  Chap,  ii,  infra. 

8  Herodotus,  6.  112;  Xenophon,  Anab.  i.  8.  15;  4.  3.  17. 
4  Cp.  Pausanias,  8.  34.  3. 

6  Odyssey,  10.  527,  and  schol. ;  Kaibel,  Epigram,  graec.  1034. 
6  Schol.  on  Sophocles,  Oed.  Col.  42. 


THE   WORSHIP  OF  THE   GODS  107 

gods  like  those  to  the  gods  above.  Instead  of  cakes  such  as  men 
ate,  a  peculiar  cake  or  porridge  (WAavo?)  was  made  of  meal, 
honey,  and  sometimes  poppy  seed;  this  was  never  tasted,  but 
burned  on  the  low  altar  of  the  spirits  of  the  deep.1  For  this 
ritual,  a  series  of  words  was  used  entirely  different  from  those  used 
for  the  communion  meal  (o-^ayta,  e'vayi'£eo-0ai,  Tre'Aavos,  etc.).  And 
the  gods  were  different,  or  at  least  different  in  attitude.2  They 
were  easily  angered,  dangerous  to  approach  even  when  they  had 
rich  blessings  to  bestow ;  many  times  the  fearful  evidence  they 
had  given  of  their  anger  was  the  occasion  for  these  sacrifices.  In 
this  group  of  divinities  were  included  (i)  the  dead,  and  those  gods 
who  were  rulers  of  souls;  (2)  local  spirits,  called  heroes,  who 
were  regarded  in  much  the  same  way  as  the  dead ;  (3)  agricul- 
tural deities ;  and  (4)  many  gods  of  the  sea,  river  gods,  and  the 
winds.  Occasionally  propitiatory  sacrifices  were  offered  to  some 
of  the  Olympian  gods,  especially  when  some  old  nature  deity  had 
become  merged  with  a  god  of  Olympus. 

So  far  as  the  souls  of  the  dead  are  concerned,  their  worship  will 
be  considered  in  connection  with  the  rites  of  burial.  The  chthonic 
gods,  gods  who  have  to  do  with  souls  and  the  world  below,  include 
Hades  and  Persephone,  Hermes  conductor  of  souls,  Hecate,  the 
Eumenides,  etc.  To  the  rulers  of  the  dead  and  Hermes  is  di- 
rected the  ritual  used  in  the  citation  of  souls,  as  depicted  in  the 
Persians  of  Aeschylus.  The  Eumenides  or  Erinyes  seem  to  have 
been  originally  the  spirits  of  dead  men  that  have  been  wronged ; 
they  receive  propitiatory  sacrifices  to  avert  their  wrath.  These 
chthonic  gods  normally  received  propitiatory  sacrifice,  though 
sometimes  the  communion-meal  offering  was  appropriate. 

The  worship  of  heroes,  local  spirits  supposed  to  be  souls  of  the 
dead  with  peculiar  powers  and  associations,  is  an  interesting  phase 
of  Greek  religion.  They  seem  to  be  half  souls  lingering  by  the 

1  Hermes,  29  (1884)  281,  625;  Aeschylus,  Pers.  203;  Aristophanes,  Plut.  661 
and  schol. 

*  See  "  The  Chthonic  Gods  of  Greek  Religion,"  Am.  Jour.  Phil.  21  (1900) 
341  £. 


io8 


GREEK  RELIGION 


tomb,  half  gods  with  strange  power  to  bless  and  to  curse ;  their 
worship  corresponds  to  their  nature  in  that  we  find  evidence  of 
double  sacrifices  to  some  heroes,  communion-meal  offerings  as 
to  gods  with  the  usual  ritual,  and  propitiatory  sacrif  ces  of  black 
animals  on  another  altar  as  to  heroes.1  Because  they  were  easily 
roused  to  anger,  because  plagues  and  other  misfortunes  were  at- 
tributed to  heroes,  the 
uneaten  propitiatory 
sacrifice  was  ordinarily 
the  more  appropriate. 

The  worship  of  agri- 
cultural gods  is  in  many 
places  not  differenti- 
ated from  that  of  the 
rulers  of  the  dead,  for 
the  same  mother  earth 
receives  the  dead  and 
gives  birth  to  the  grain. 


FIG.  27.— RELIEF  IN  THEBES 

At  the  left  the  "  hero"  stands  beside  his  horse  be- 
fore a  low  altar  (eerxapo) ;  a  line  of  worshippers  at 
the  right  bring  a  pig  and  a  libation. 


The  uncertainty  of  the 
crops  is  understood  to 
mean  that  agricultural 
gods  are  easily  provoked  to  wrath.  In  the  worship  of  Demeter,  god- 
dess of  the  grain,  of  Dionysus,  god  of  plant-life,  and  of  Apollo  who 
wards  off  pestilence  from  the  crops  as  well  as  from  the  flocks,  we 
find  propitiatory  rites  as  well  as  communion-meal  offerings  ;  the 
propitiation  here  commonly  is  of  the  type  described  below  as 
mystic  or  purificatory  sacrifice. 

Other  gods  who  are  easily  moved  to  anger  also  receive  propitia- 
tory sacrifices.  Artemis,  who  stood  so  close  to  nature,  was  wor- 
shipped in  this  way  before  battle  ;  Poseidon,  with  temper  like  that 
of  the  sea,  the  Winds,  never  to  be  depended  on,  the  River  gods, 
now  bringing  fertility  but  soon  raging  with  wild  fury,  these  and 


1  'Hpa/cXe?  <7<£as  ws  rjput  tvaylfovras  .  .  .  us  0e$  fftieti',  Pausanias,   2.  10.  i ; 
Herodotus,  2.  44;  Isocrates,  10.63;  CP-  Pausanias,  8.  34.  3. 


THE  WORSHIP  OF  THE  GODS  109 


similar  divinities  receive  sacrifices  of  this  type  (ox^ayia)  when  men 
have  occasion  to  fear  their  possible  wrath. 

Although  propitiatory  sacrifice,  like  the  communion-meal  offer- 
ing, has  been  reduced  to  one  more  or  less  defined  type  in  the 
period  when  we  become  acquainted  with  the  ritual,  it  probably 
represents  rites  of  different  origin  and  different  meaning.  Only 
one  form,  the  purification  to  be  considered  in  the  next  paragraph, 
can  be  clearly  differentiated  from  the  others.  It  seems  clear, 
however,  that  propitiatory  sacrifices  were  offered  to  the  dead  and 
to  gods  connected  with  the  dead,  because  no  gift  could  be  so 
welcome  as  the  blood  —  sometimes  human  blood  —  which  was 
believed  to  revive  their  weakened  power  of  thought  and  conscious- 
ness. The  body  of  the  animal  was  burned  because  it  was  not  safe 
to  treat  it  in  any  other  way.  In  the  case  of  the  winds,  river  gods, 
and  sea  gods,  perhaps  such  sacrifices  were  offered  because  blood 
was  the  most  potent  charm  man  had  at  his  command.  To  secure 
the  favor  of  gods  who  were  or  might  be  angry,  a  human  sacrifice 
or  even  an  animal  substitute  might  be  all  that  was  necessary,  an 
object  on  which  the  lightning  stroke  of  wrath  was  discharged  and 
made  harmless.  The  "envy  of  the  gods"  was  a  familiar  thought 
to  the  Greeks  ;  Polycrates  vainly  hoped  to  avoid  it  by  inflicting 
on  himself  the  loss  of  his  valuable  ring  ;  l  but  that  the  Greek  gods 
so  regularly  took  pleasure  in  the  destruction  of  something  valuable 
as  to  give  rise  to  all  sacrifice  of  this  type,  does  not  seem  to  me  a 
safe  principle  of  explanation. 

Rites  of  purification  are  not  as  important  in  Greek  religion  as 
in  the  religions  of  many  other  peoples.  Still  there  does  attach  to 
murder,  and  in  fact  to  death  in  any  form,  a  taint  which  incapaci- 
tates men  to  appear  before  the  gods.  Childbirth  also  demands  a 
lustration.  Furthermore  before  marriage  and  before  participating 
in  the  mysteries  an  individual  must  be  purified  ;  at  certain  seasons 
and  after  such  troubles  as  a  plague,  the  city  needs  purification  ; 
before  a  political  assembly  or  gathering  in  the  theatre  the  place  is 

1  Herodotus,  3.  41. 


no 


GREEK   RELIGION 


FIG.  28.  —  SCENE  ON  A 
GREEK  GEM 


purified  with  religious  rites  to  guard  against  the  evil  which  the 
possible  presence  of  some  polluted  person  might  cause.  In  the 
case  of  murder  it  is  the  spirit  of  the  dead  man  who  pursues  the 
murderer  until  it  is  appeased ; l  in  other  cases  the  taint  is  con- 
ceived as  a  sort  of  spiritual  entity  which 
inheres  in  those  who  come  near  what 
defiles,  and  against  which  special  care 
is  needed.  Apparently  the  rites  of 
purification  were  originally  rites  of 
riddance  by  which  spirits  of  evil  were 
effectually  driven  away  ; 2  with  the  recog- 
nition of  all-ruling  greater  gods,  the 
same  rites  came  to  be  understood  as 
the  means  of  removing  some  taint 
which  made  these  gods  angry. 

In  the  ceremony  of  purification  the 
subject  sits  with  veiled  head  while  he  is 
The  three  daughters  of  Me-  sprinkled  with  the  blood  of  a  sucking 

lampus  (?)    are  being  puri-       j      and  jg    offered    3    libations 

fied  from  their  insanity  by  a 

bearded  priest,  who  holds  without  wine  accompany  the  ceremony 
above  them  a  young  pig  and  and  cakes  are  burned  on  the  altar, 
a  branch  for  sprinkling;  at  Under  some  circumstances  sea  water 

the  right  is  a  young  attendant, 

at  the   left   possibly  Artemis    °r  SPnng  Water>  day>  Sulphur,  etc.,  find 

standing  beside  a  column.       a  place  in  the  ceremony.     The  skin  of 
a  ram  sacrificed  to  Zeus  Meilichios  (Aios 

KoiSiov)  had  peculiar  power  to  absorb  the  taint  of  evil.4  The  mur- 
derer flees  to  another  city  and  seeks  purification  there  as  a  sup- 
pliant ;  those  about  to  be  married  or  to  be  initiated  in  the  myste- 
ries are  purified  by  their  friends ;  the  assembly-place  and  theatre 
are  sprinkled  with  pigs'  blood  by  city  officials.4  It  is  only  when 
a  city  or  a  people  is  to  be  purified  that  some  priest  or  prophet  is 

l  Rohde,  Rhein.  Mus.  50  (1895)  6  f.  2  Aeschylus,  Choeph.  967. 

8  Apollonius  Rhod.  4.  702  f.  and  schol. ;  Pausanias,  5.  16.  8. 
4  Preller,  Polemon,  139  f. 

6  Herodotus,  i.  35;  Aeschylus,  Earn.  835,  and  schol.;   Dittenberger,  Sylloge, 
653-  68. 


THE   WORSHIP  OF  THE   GODS  in 

needed.  In  the  celebrated  case  of  the  plague  at  Athens  after  the 
murder  of  the  Cylonidae,  we  are  told  that  the  seer  Epimenides 
was  fetched  from  Crete  to  direct  the  purification.1  The  first  step 
consisted  in  the  removal  from  the  land  of  all  the  guilty  persons, 
including  the  bones  of  those  who  had  died  in  the  meantime. 
Then  black  and  white  sheep  were  brought  to  the  altar  where  the 
sacrilege  had  been  committed,  let  loose  to  follow  their  own  course, 
and  sacrificed  on  the  spot  where  each  chanced  to  lie  down. 
Some  writers  add  that  a  youth  also  was  sacrificed.  In  time  of 
plague  Tanagra  was  purified  by  Hermes  himself  who  bore  a  ram 
on  his  shoulders  around  the  walls  of  the  city;2  the  evil  spirits 
"  entered  into  "  the  ram,  as  into  the  swine  of  Gadara,  and  were 
borne  away. 

The  regular  purifications  had  to  do  mainly  with  agriculture.  At 
the  Thesmophoria  pigs  were  thrown  into  a  hole  in  the  ground  as 
a  sacrifice  to  Eubouleus  and  Persephone ;  later  the  decayed  re- 
mains of  the  flesh  were  mixed  with  seed  by  superstitious  persons.8 
In  the  early  spring  at  the  Diasia  individuals  offered  animals  (or 
cakes  in  the  forms  of  animals)  to  propitiate  Zeus  Meilichios ;  the 
purpose  apparently  was  to  remove  any  taint  which  might  cause 
damage  to  the  crops  as  the  result  of  divine  anger.  Again  in  early 
summer  at  the  Thargelia  danger  was  averted  from  the  ripening 
crop  by  purification  of  the  city ;  in  addition  to  the  sacrifice  of  ani- 
mals, two  men  (<f>apiwKoi)  were  escorted  through  the  city  to 
gather  up  all  taint  of  evil ;  they  were  then  driven  from  the  coun- 
try, or  in  earlier  time,  slain  in  sacrifice.4 

The  meaning  of  the  rites  of  purification  is  to  be  sought  in  two 
directions.  First,  men  felt  the  necessity  of  removing  the  guilt  ; 
the  murderer  must  leave  the  country,  before  either  he  or  the  coun- 
try can  be  purified ;  an  animal  or  a  man  led  through  the  city  with 
proper  rites  may  attract  the  taint  of  evil  and  carry  it  off  when  he 
is  driven  from  the  land  ;  mere  washing  may  be  enough  to  remove 

1  Diogenes  Laer.  i.  no;  Aristotle,  Athen.  Pol.  i.         2  Pausanias,  9.  22.  i. 

8  Rhtin.  Mus.  25  (1870)  549 ;  cp.  Lasaulx,  Studien  des  classischen  Alter  turns,  262  f. 

4  Harpocration,  s.v.  <£ap/ua/c6s. 


ii2  GREEK  RELIGION 

the  evil.  But  secondly,  in  explaining  the  use  of  pigs'  blood,  it 
cannot  be  forgotten  that  the  pig  is  the  favorite  sacrifice  of  Deme- 
ter,  in  a  sense  the  animal  sacred  to  her.  When  a  temple  of  Aphro- 
dite is  to  be  purified,  the  blood  of  her  sacred  animal,  the  dove,  is 
used;  in  the  worship  of  Hecate,  the  blood  of  the  dog  sacred  to 
Hecate  purifies  the  worshipper ;  so  before  the  mysteries  of  Deme- 
ter  the  blood  of  her  sacred  animal,  the  pig,  is  used  for  the  same 
purpose.1  In  these  instances  the  blood  of  the  sacred  animal 
"  purifies  "  the  worshipper  by  producing  a  mystic  connection  be- 
tween him  and  the  goddess.  It  is  quite  possible  that  in  purifica- 
tion for  murder,  where  no  particular  god  is  concerned,  pigs'  blood 
came  to  be  used  by  transfer  from  the  worship  of  the  grain  goddess. 
8.  Worship  from  the  Standpoint  of  the  State :  Panhellenic 
Worship.  —  The  different  elements  of  worship,  which  have  been 
described  in  the  last  four  sections,  were  used  both  in  the  religion 
of  the  state  and  in  the  religion  of  the  individual  and  the  home. 
In  a  state  like  Athens  each  element  in  the  political  organization 
had  its  religious  side.  The  larger  family  group  (yeVos)  worshipped 
the  ancestral  god  or  hero  (Otbs  TrarpoJos)  from  whom  descent  was 
claimed ; 2  the  local  deme  had  its  own  festivals,  some  of  which 
dated  back  to  a  very  early  epoch  ;  the  political  groups  of  demes 
(<£uAai)  were  built  upon  a  religious  basis  with  a  common  worship 
of  some  hero  (as  Cecrops,  Erechtheus,  Pandion).  The  phratry 
also  had  its  religious  festival,  known  as  the  Apatouria  :  on  the  first 
day  the  members  of  the  phratry  joined  in  a  common  sacrificial 
meal,  on  the  second  sacrifices  were  offered  to  Zeus  Phratrios  and 
Athena,  and  on  the  third  day  fathers  acknowledged  their  new-born 
children  by  enrolling  them  in  the  phratry  list  and  offering  a  sacri- 
fice (/xctoi/)  in  connection  with  a  banquet  for  the  members  of  the 
phratry.3  On  this  third  day  the  fathers  brought  their  children  of 
school  age  to  show  what  progress  they  had  made,  and  prizes  were 

1  Bull.  Corr.  Hell.  13  (1889)  163;  Schol.  Aristophanes,  Pax,  277;  Schol.  Aris- 
tophanes, Ran.  338 ;  Aelian,  De  »<z/.  anim.  10.  16. 

2  Aristotle,  Athen.  Pol.  21.  6. 

»  C.I. A.  II,  841  b  (Dittenberger,  Sylloge,  439)  ;    Bull.  Corr.  Hell.  19  (1895)  x! 
Hermes,  31  (1896)  508. 


THE  WORSHIP  OF  THE   GODS 


offered  for  excellence  in  repeating  selections  from  the  poets.1  It 
was  part  of  the  marriage  ceremony  to  register  the  wife  as  a  mem- 
ber of  her  husband's  phratry,  on  which  occasion  also  the  members, 
of  the  phratry  were  in- 
vited to  a  sacrificial 
feast. 

The  worship  at 
every  shrine,  as  we 
have  seen,  was  under 
the  supervision  of  the 
state ;  so  far  as  the 
benefits  to  be  derived 
from  it  were  con- 
cerned, the  regular 
worship  was  carried  on 
in  behalf  of  the  state 
as  a  whole,  as  well  as 
in  behalf  of  individ- 
uals. It  has  been 
pointed  out  that  all 
shrines  were  in  the 
last  instance  admin- 
istered by  the  state 
through  the  priests. 
Special  sacrifices  be- 
fore the  meeting  of 
the  assembly  or  before 
battle  were  offered  by 
city  officials  for  the  city-state.  In  time  of  plague,  the  city,  under 
guidance  of  the  Delphic  oracle,  performed  rites  of  purification 
to  free  itself  from  the  taint  of  evil.2 

At  most  shrines  the  worship  centred  about  one  annual  festival, 
and  in  a  few  instances  we  read  of  temples  which  were  closed  all 
the  rest  of  the  year.  A  regular  monthly  or  even  daily  worship  was 

1  Plato,  Tim.  21  B.  2  See  Part  II,  Chap.  iii. 

GREEK    RELIGION 8 


FIG.  29. —  ATHENIAN  RED-FIGURED  VASE 
PAINTINGS  (Amphora,  Munich) 

At  the  right  a  young  athlete  is  bearing  away  a  Pan- 
athenaic  amphora  as  a  prize:  the  figure  at  the  left 
carries  myrtle  twigs  and  a  votive  tablet. 


GREEK   RELIGION 


not  uncommon,  while  we  must  assume  that  many  temples  were 
open  for  worship  every  day ;  moreover,  though  the  greater  festi- 
vals were  annual,  it  was  not  unusual  for  the  celebration  to  be  espe- 
cially magnificent  once  in  four  years.  The  Panathenaea  at  Athens 
was  such  an  annual  festival,  which  after  the  time  of  Peisistratus 

was  celebrated  with 
special  pomp  every 
fourth  year. 

In  order  to  get  a 
clearer  conception  of 
the  city  festival,  we 
may  describe  briefly 
the  Panathenaea.  The 
arrangements  for  the 
festival  were  in  charge 
of  a  commission  ap- 
pointed for  the  pur- 
pose. In  the  fourth 
century  the  greater 
Panathenaea  began 
with  musical  and  gym- 
nastic contests  which 


FIG.  30.  —  SCENE  FROM  PANATHENAIC 
AMPHORA  (British  Museum) 

Athena  is  advancing  as  into  battle ;  the  inscription 
reads  "  I  am  one  of  the  prizes  from  Athens." 


lasted  for  several  days. 

On  the  night  before 

the  culminating  day  (Hekatombaion  28)  a  torch  race  was  held, 
a  relay  race  in  which  that  series  of  runners  was  victorious 
which  first  succeeded  in  bringing  its  torch  still  burning  to  the 
goal.  Next  morning  early,  the  great  procession  carried  to  the 
temple  the  new  garment  that  chosen  maidens  had  woven  for  the 
goddess  and  embroidered  with  scenes  from  the  battle  of  the  gods 
and  giants.  After  Athens  had  become  a  sea  power,  this  peplos 
was  stretched  like  a  sail  on  yards  and  mast,  in  this  wise  to  be  borne 
up  through  the  city.  There  followed  in  the  procession  the  citizens 
of  Athens,  officials  religious  and  secular,  old  men  chosen  for  their 
beauty  bearing  olive  boughs  (Oa\Xo<f>6poi) ,  envoys  from  the  col- 


THE   WORSHIP  OF  THE  GODS  115 

onies,  victors  in  the  athletic  contests,  those  who  bore  utensils  of 
sacrifice,  priests  and  attendants  driving  cattle  to  be  offered  to 
the  goddess,  and  marshals  directing  the  procession.  At  the  great 
altar  before  the  temple  of  Athena  the  animals  were  sacrificed, 
that  all  the  people  of  the  city  might  share  the  great  banquet  in 
honor  of  the  city's  goddess.  On  the  last  day  came  a  boat  race  at 
the  Peiraeus,  for  Athena  had  brought  glory  to  her  city  through  its 
fleet.  Among  the  contests  of  the  previous  days  the  war  dance 
(pyrrich)  and  the  combination  of  chariot  and  foot  race,  in  which 
a  man  (aTro/Jarr/;)  was  driven  across  the  stadium  only  to  leap  from 
the  chariot  and  run  back  to  the  starting-point,  were  peculiar  to 
this  festival ;  other  athletic  contests  resembled  those  at  the  greater 
games  (e.g.  at  Olympia),  except  that  the  prize  was  a  large  jar  of 
oil  from  Athena's  sacred  grove  of  olive  trees.1  It  is  said  that 
Peisistratus  introduced  the  practice  of  having  the  Homeric  poems 
recited  by  bards ;  Pericles  pursued  the  same  policy  in  adding 
other  musical  contests  with  cithara  and  flute  and  song.  For  these 
contests  the  first  prize  was  a  gold  or  silver  wreath,  with  gifts  of 
money  for  the  first  five  successful  contestants.  In  honor  of  Athena 
and  of  Apollo  musical  contests  were  as  important  as  athletic  games. 
From  local  festivals  of  somewhat  this  type,  we  may  assume  that 
the  Panhellenic  festivals  were  developed.  Common  language  and 
common  descent  never  proved  strong  enough  bands  to  connect 
the  Greek  city-states  into  one  nation ;  military  genius  and  power 
of  organization  were  never  united  long  enough  to  overcome  the 
love  of  local  independence ;  the  influence  of  a  few  great  shrines 
was  almost  the  only  force  tending  toward  one  Greek  nation.  The 
Delphic  oracle  was  universally  recognized,  and  at  times  the  con- 
gress of  states  meeting  at  Delphi  had  considerable  influence  in 
settling  minor  disputes,  or  in  establishing  some  principles  of  inter- 
state law.  The  games  at  Delphi,  the  Isthmus,  and  Nemea,  but 
far  more  the  games  celebrated  at  Olympia,  for  the  time  they  were 
in  progress  united  all  the  Greek  states  in  one  enthusiasm  for  what 
was  distinctively  Greek. 

1  Aristotle,  Athen.  Pol.  60. 


GREEK   RELIGION 


BED    OF  THE  CLADETJ 

— — — — — 

RETAINING    WALL 


FIG.  31.  —  PLAN  OF  THE  RUINS  AT  OLYMPIA 


THE   WORSHIP  OF  THE  GODS  117 

German  excavators  have  laid  bare  the  ruins  of  the  sacred  pre- 
cinct of  Zeus  at  Olympia,  the  great  temple  of  Zeus  from  the  fifth 
century,  the  altar  of  heaped-up  ashes  on  which  the  people  of  Elis 
offered  daily  sacrifice,  the  old  temple  of  Hera,  the  shrine  of  the 
hero  Pelops,  the  prytaneum  where  the  victors  were  feasted,  the 
gymnasium  where  the  contestants  trained,  the  stadium  where 
the  races  were  held,  the  treasure-houses  for  the  votive  offerings  of 
the  different  cities,  besides  many  remains  of  the  latter  classical 
period.1 

In  late  summer  every  fourth  year  heralds  proclaimed  a  sacred 
peace  for  the  celebration  of  the  Olympic  games,  for  as  early  as 
the  seventh  century  the  different  Greek  states  sent  participants 
and  spectators  to  the  scene.  First  came  the  contestants,  to  carry 
on  their  training  here  at  the  spot  where  the  contest  was  to  be  held. 
Embassies  to  the  games  from  the  different  states  would  soon  begin 
to  arrive,  while  merchants  in  great  numbers  brought  their  wares 
for  sale ;  artist  and  poet  came  to  help  celebrate  the  victors  by 
their  art ;  orators  found  opportunity  to  win  fame  in  addressing  the 
crowds  ;  for  more  than  1000  years  (till  it  was  forbidden  in  393  A.D.) 
the  festival  proved  a  splendid  focus  of  all  that  was  best  in  the 
common  life  of  the  Greeks. 

The  first  day  of  the  festival  was  devoted  to  the  great  sacrifice 
to  Zeus,  in  whose  honor  the  games  were  held,  and  to  the  necessary 
preliminaries.  Judges  (If e  llano  dikai)  and  contestants  appeared 
before  Zeus  Horkios,  the  former  to  swear  that  they  would  act  with 
impartial  justice,  the  latter  to  swear  that  they  had  observed  the 
rules  for  training  during  the  preceding  ten  months,  and  that  they 
would  refrain  from  everything  dishonorable  in  the  games.  The 
judges  then  made  up  the  final  list  of  contestants,  omitting  those 
whom  they  found  unworthy,  investigating  the  Hellenic  descent  of 
the  applicants,  and  arranging  the  contests  of  youths  so  as  to  pre- 
vent any  unfairness.  The  second  day  saw  the  running  and  wrest- 
ling and  boxing  of  the  youths  under  twenty,  those  only  excepted 

1  A  convenient  presentation  of  the  subject  is  Hachtmann,  Olympia  und  seine 
Festspiele,  1899. 


n8  GREEK   RELIGION 

who  had  been  adjudged  strong  enough  to  compete  with  men.  On 
the  next  day  the  men,  entirely  naked  and  anointed  with  oil, 
entered  the  lists.  The  running  would  not  appeal  to  a  modern 
athlete,  for  the  course  was  strewn  with  soft  sand  and  the  runners 
waved  their  arms  vigorously  in  their  efforts  to  cover  such  a  course. 
The  Olympic  period  was  named  for  the  victor  in  the  single  course 
of  about  200  yards  (600  Greek  feet  =192. 27  metres).  This 
single  course  was  followed  by  the  endurance  race  of  24  courses, 
nearly  three  miles,  and  the  double  course.  In  the  wrestling  three 
throws  (rpia^eiv)  were  necessary  for  a  victory.  The  celebrated 
Milo  of  Croton  won  this  prize  six  times ;  the  seventh  time  he  was 
conquered  by  a  fellow- citizen  who  had  learned  how  to  avoid  his 
fatal  grip.  The  boxers  had  their  arms  and  hands  wound  with  leather 
thongs,  to  which  leaden  weights  were  later  added.  The  skill  of 
the  contestants  lay  in  parrying  and  avoiding  the  blows  till  one  ac- 
knowledged himself  beaten  ;  more  than  once  a  boxer  was  crippled 
or  killed  by  his  opponent.  The  last  contest,  the  pankration,  was 
the  severest  of  all.  Wrestling  and  boxing  were  combined  and  even 
throttling  was  permitted,  a  battle  royal  in  which  only  the  strongest 
and  most  skilful  might  participate. 

On  the  fourth  day  came  the  horse  races,  the  pentathlon,  and 
the  foot  race  in  armor.  The  hippodrome  is  said  to  have  provided 
a  course  up  and  back,  just  less  than  a  mile  in  length.  At  one  end 
of  the  central  dividing  wall  was  a  statue  of  Hippodameia  crown- 
ing Pelops,  victor  in  the  chariot  race.  On  either  side  and  at  the 
east  end  sat  the  spectators.  Each  car,  a  low  two-wheeled  affair 
with  body  open  behind,  was  confined  behind  a  rope  in  its  own 
little  compartment  at  the  west  end ;  by  a  somewhat  artificial 
device  these  ropes  were  dropped  in  such  a  way  as  to  permit  the 
drivers  to  begin  the  race  together.  The  race  included  twelve 
courses  ;  if  the  length  of  the  course  is  correctly  given,  the  race  of 
about  1 1  miles  must  have  been  a  test  of  endurance  rather  than 
of  speed.  At  Delphi  on  one  occasion  no  less  than  41  cars  took 
part  in  a  single  race  ;  such  scenes  of  confusion  as  Sophocles 
describes,  car  crashing  into  car,  driver  and  horses  in  most  immi- 


THE   WORSHIP  OF  THE   GODS  119 

nent  danger  in  the  melee,  must  often  have  added  to  the  excite- 
ment.1 The  prize  of  victory  was  awarded  not  to  the  driver  for  his 
skill,  but  to  the  owner  who  had  raised  or  secured  such  excellent 
horses.  The  races  of  two-horse  cars,  of  colts,  etc.,  need  hardly 
be  mentioned  beside  the  main  race  of  four-horse  chariots. 

The  pentathlon  was  a  peculiarly  Greek  contest  in  that  it  tended 
to  develop  skill  in  all  forms  of  athletics.  The  long  jump,  the 
200  yards  dash,  throwing  a  discus  of  about  four  pounds,  throwing 
the  spear,  and  wrestling,  one  after  the  other,  tested  the  man's 
powers  in  every  direction ;  only  those  who  came  up  to  a  high 
standard  in  the  early  contests,  entered  the  wrestling,  and  the  victor 
here  was  victor  in  the  series.  The  race  of  men  in  armor,  a  double 
course,  completed  the  games,  and  in  the  evening  those  who  had 
received  the  palm  branch  of  victory  were  banqueted. 

The  prizes  were  publicly  bestowed  on  the  fifth  and  last  day. 
Wreaths  of  wild  olive,  cut  with  due  ceremony  from  the  tree  desig- 
nated by  the  oracle,  had  been  lying  in  the  temple  before  the  image 
of  Zeus ; 2  now  the  judges  placed  them  on  the  brows  of  the  victors 
and  heralds  proclaimed  name  and  state  of  the  victors  to  the 
applauding  crowd.  After  the  victors  had  sacrificed  to  Zeus,  the 
embassies  from  the  different  states  joined  in  a  magnificent  proces- 
sion from  one  altar  to  another.  The  people  of  Elis  served  a  ban- 
quet to  the  victors,  a  Pindar  was  engaged  to  sing  their  praises, 
they  were  escorted  home  in  triumph,  their  crowns  were  dedicated 
in  the  principal  temple  at  home,  and  they  received  substantial 
tokens  of  their  countrymen's  favor.  At  Olympia  also,  the  victor 
might  dedicate  a  statue  to  the  god,  though  only  to  him  who  had 
won  three  victories  was  a  portrait  statue  permitted. 

Not  even  the  war  with  Persia,  that  great  struggle  to  vindicate 
Greek  freedom  against  what  claimed  to  be  a  world  power,  united 
the  different  states  of  Greece  as  they  were  united  in  the  Panhel- 
lenic  games.  Men  offered  to  the  gods  the  exhibition  of  their 
strength  and  skill  as  an  expression  of  the  worship  of  all  Greece, 

1  Pindar,  Pyth.  5.  49;  Sophocles,  Elec.  698  f. 

2  Pindar,  Olym.  3.  13  f. ;  Pausanias,  5. 7.  7 ;  5.  20.  i ;  cp.  Lucian,  Anach.  15. 


120  GREEK   RELIGION 

and  every  state  accepted  this  worship  as  the  common  inheritance 
of  one  people. 

9.  Worship  of  the  Individual  and  the  Home. — The  variety  of 
worship  in  the  city  was  to  some  extent  reflected  in  the  home. 
The  goddess  of  the  home  as  such  was  Hestia  (Vesta),  the  per- 
sonified hearth  flame.  Her  round  altar  wound  with  white  fillets 
stood  in  the  main  room  (dvSpuiv),  for  the  hearth  had  from  earliest 
days  been  the  centre  of  home  life.1  The  city  also  had  its  central 
hearth,  where  burned  the  fire  of  Hestia,  symbol  that  the  city  was 
a  larger  home.  Every  sacrifice  is  said  to  have  begun  and  ended 
with  the  worship  of  Hestia.  In  the  home  sacrifices  of  animals 
were  offered  to  the  gods  of  the  hearth  (0eoi  C^EOTIOI),  including 
Hestia.  Every  day  libations  were  twice  offered  to  her  at  meals. 
And  on  all  occasions  which  emphasized  the  home — departing  on  a 
journey  or  returning  home,  the  reception  of  the  new  wife,  birth, 
death,  the  coming  of  new  slaves  —  on  all  such  occasions  the  god- 
dess of  the  home  was  worshipped. 

At  Athens  the  first  shrine  as  one  entered  the  house  was  a  stone 
in  the  form  of  a  truncated  cone  which  stood  just  outside  the  door. 
This  was  at  the  same  time  altar  and  symbol  of  the  god.  Here  to 
Apollo  the  Guardian  men  prayed  in  time  of  plague  or  other  trouble  ; 
the  home  comer  stopped  to  worship  here ;  on  receipt  of  good 
news  fragrant  herbs  burned  on  this  altar.2  At  the  door  the  bridal 
pair  stopped  to  receive  on  this  altar  the  new  fire  for  their  home. 

The  patron  deities  of  the  race  (Oeol  Trdrpioi)  had  their  worship 
perhaps  in  a  side  room  off  the  main  hall.  The  goddess  of  the  city, 
Athena,  as  well  as  the  gods  of  the  family,  the  deme,  the  tribe,  the 
phratry,  might  find  a  place  here;  in  fact  men  brought  to  their 
homes  the  worship  of  any  city  god  in  which  they  were  interested. 
Small  images  of  these  gods  were  kept  in  cupboard-shrines,  shrines 
the  front  of  which  often  had  the  form  of  a  temple  (veuoacos),  and 

1  Cornutus,  De  nat.  dear.  28 ;  Diodorus  Sic.  5.  68 ;  the  material  is  gathered  (but 
not  critically  handled)  by  Petersen,  Der  Hausgottcsdienst  der  alien  Griechen,  1851. 

2  Sophocles,  Elec.  637;    Track.  209;  Aeschylus,  Agam.  1080  f. ;  Aristophanes, 
Vesf.  875. 


THE  WORSHIP  OF  THE  GODS  121 

were  worshipped  both  at  family  feasts  and  at  the  time  of  their 
public  worship.1  As  an  altar  of  Zeus  stood  in  the  court  of  the 
palace  in  early  times,2  so  there  may  often  have  been  an  altar  of 
Zeus  Herkeios  in  the  open  court  of  later  houses,  for  he  was  wor- 
shipped in  the  home  as  well  as  publicly  in  the  city.  Probably 
images  of  marriage  gods  were  installed  in  the  bedroom  of  husband 
and  wife. 

Finally  gods  of  property  and  of  good  fortune  found  their  place 
in  the  home.  Zeus  Ktesios  was  worshipped  here  to  safeguard 
health  and  wealth.3  His  presence  is  said  to  have  been  symbolized 
by  a  two-handled  vessel ;  for  purposes  of  worship  the  vessel,  wound 
with  wool,  was  filled  with  water,  oil,  and  fruits  of  all  kinds.  Plutus, 
good  fortune,  Agathodaemon  (success),  and  Hermes,  god  of  trade, 
seem  to  have  been  worshipped  occasionally  with  Zeus  Ktesios. 

These  different  shrines — that  of  Apollo  Agyieus  at  the  door,  of 
Hestia  in  the  main  room  (androti),  of  the  gods  of  the  family  and 
the  gods  of  property  perhaps  in  side  rooms,  of  marriage  in  the 
bridal  chamber  —  were  not  necessarily  all  present  in  every  house, 
but  they  stand  for  the  normal  worship  of  the  home.  The  worship 
of  each  day  and  of  recurring  festivals  was  brought  to  them.4  It 
remains  to  speak  of  the  special  worship  associated  with  the  spe- 
cial events  of  family  life. 

The  religious  ceremonies  connected  with  birth  had  a  double 
aim,  to  remove  ceremonial  uncleanness  and  to  obtain  divine  favor 
for  the  new-born  child.  The  olive  wreath  hung  on  the  front  door 
at  the  birth  of  a  son  or  the  woolen  fillets  at  the  birth  of  a  daughter, 
which  betokened  the  work  of  the  future  housewife  or  the  honor 
to  be  won  by  the  man,  warned  visitors  from  a  house  ceremonially 
impure.  The  ceremony  of  purification,  the  Amphidromia,  is  said 
by  some  authors  to  have  taken  place  on  the  fifth  day  after  birth, 
though  it  seems  ordinarily  to  have  been  combined  with  the  birth- 

1  Cp.  Schol.  Aeschines,  i.  10. 

2  Iliad,  ii.  774;  cp.  Plato,  Polltia,  i,  p.  328  C. 

3  Isaeus,  8.  16;  Athenaeus,  n,  p.  473  C  (Anticleides). 

4  Hesiod,  Erga,  336  f. ;  Frag.  178. 


122  GREEK  RELIGION 

day  feast  on  the  tenth  day.1  After  the  mother,  nurse,  etc.,  had 
been  purified,  the  women  of  the  house  laid  aside  their  garments 
and  ran  around  the  hearth  carrying  the  young  child.  The  gifts 
which  were  brought  consisted  mainly  of  delicacies  for  the  feast 
that  followed  ;  one  was  never  missing,  the  special  cake  (xapurios) 
which  the  slaves  of  the  household  prepared  for  the  occasion.  The 
sacrifice  before  the  banquet  (TO.  yf.viOX.ia.)  2  was  offered  to  the  gods 
who  preside  over  the  growth  of  children,  for  example  Apollo  and 
Artemis.3  The  feast  itself  was  peculiar  in  that  the  women  of  the 
family  were  present  ;  according  to  late  authors  delicacies  of  the 
table  abounded,  games  like  the  cottabus  were  shared  even  by 
the  women,  and  the  festivities  were  prolonged  far  into  the  night. 

The  enrolment  of  the  young  child  as  a  member  of  the  phratry 
has  already  been  mentioned.  At  least  in  the  Hellenistic  age  it 
was  not  unusual  for  those  who  had  been  initiated  in  the  Eleusinian 
mysteries  to  have  their  young  children  consecrated  to  the  same 
service  of  Demeter  (d<£'  tanas  fivriO/jvai).4  It  was  the  practice  at 
Athens  to  bring  young  girls  under  the  protection  of  the  maiden 
Artemis  for  the  five  years  before  they  were  marriageable.5  When 
a  young  man  reached  maturity  and  at  about  the  age  of  eighteen 
began  to  assume  the  duties  of  citizenship,  the  change  in  his  mode 
of  life  received  the  sanction  of  religion.6  The  long  hair  of  youth 
was  cut  and  dedicated  to  Apollo,  ordinarily  at  Athens,  in  excep- 
tional cases  at  Delphi  ;  the  young  men  took  the  oath  of  citizen- 
ship and  were  registered  in  the  official  list  ;  we  read  also  of  a 
drink-offering  to  Heracles  accompanied  with  festivities  on  this 
occasion. 

Marriage  was  a  religious  rite  (re'Aos)  ,  not  because  any  sacramen- 
tal bond  united  husband  and  wife,  but  because  the  blessing  of  the 
gods  was  sought  for  the  new  home.7  Preliminary  sacrifices  (TO 


1  Suidas,  s.v.  d/u^tSpijUta  ;  Hesychius,  s.v.  Spopidipiov 

2  Euripides,  /on,  653  ;  Aristophanes,  Aves,  494. 

8  Schoemann,  Ofmsc.  2.  227.  5  Suidas  s.v.  Apxros, 

4  C.I.A.  III.  809,  828  f.  etc.  6  Hesychius,  ol 

7  Cp.  I^asaulx,  Studien  des  classischen  Altertums,  261,  426  f. 


THE   WORSHIP  OF  THE  GODS 


123 


were  offered  by  the  parents  of  bride  and  groom  to  the 
gods  of  marriage  (0eot  ya/i^Aioi),  Zeus  Teleios,  Hera  Teleia,  Arte- 


FIG.  32.  —  ATHENIAN  RED-FIGURED  VASE  PAINTING 

A  bride  is  being  led  toward  her  new  home ;  the  central  figures  are  Apollo  and 
Artemis  as  gods  of  marriage. 

mis,  and  at  Athens,  Athena.  The  bride  consecrated  to  the  gods 
her  playthings,  her  maiden  garment,  sometimes  an  offering  of  her 
hair.  To  avert  evil  both  bride 
and  groom1  took  purificatory 
baths  in  water  brought  with 
special  rites.  The  wedding 
feast  itself  at  the  house  of  the 
bride's  father  included  sacri- 
fices to  the  household  gods 
with  prayers  for  the  prosperity 
of  the  new  home.  The  wed- 
ding procession  in  the  early 
evening  was  accompanied  by 
musicians  invoking  Hymen,  the 
god  of  marriage.  On  reach- 
ing their  new  home  the  hus- 
band and  wife  worshipped  at 
its  different  shrines,  ending  with 
the  gods  of  marriage  in  the 
bridal  chamber ;  in  Boeotia, 


FIG.  33.  —  REUEF  IN  ATHENS 

An  attendant  is  holding  the  head  of  a  sick 
man  in  the  presence  of  Asclepius. 


according  to  Plutarch,  the  priestess  of  Demeter  formally  blessed 


1  Pollux,  3.  38  and  43 ;  Euripides,  Phoen.  347  and  schol. 


124  GREEK   RELIGION 

the  new  wife  in  the  name  of  the  goddess  who  presided  over  the 
mysteries  of  marriage.1 

In  sickness  men  turned  to  the  gods  for  help.  The  warriors  of 
Homer  all  had  some  skill  in  dealing  with  wounds,  but  Machaon, 
son  of  Asclepius,  was  divinely  gifted  to  treat  them  successfully. 
The  physician  of  the  gods  was  Paieon  (the  god  of  healing,  appar- 
ently of  healing  charms)  ;  from  him  the  physicians  of  Egypt  claimed 
descent.  In  spite  of  the  epic  aversion  to  magic,  we  read  of  charms 
used  to  stay  the  dark  blood  of  Odvsseus's  wounds.  The  plague 
described  in  the  beginning  of  the  Iliad  was  from  Apollo ;  not 
"  soothing  herbs "  nor  charms,  but  the  direct  intercession  of 
Apollo's  priest  was  the  power  that  checked  it.2 

Later  Greek  medicine  was  intimately  connected  with  the  wor- 
ship of  Asclepius.  The  school  of  Cos,  of  which  Hippocrates  is 
the  best-known  representative,  was  not  independent  of  the  cele- 
brated shrine  of  Asclepius  on  that  island  ;  one  of  Galen's  four 
"schools"  was  that  of  the  Asclepiadae  in  Asia.  The  sick  man 
had  his  choice  between  visiting  a  "drugseller"  in  the  market- 
place,3 or  calling  in  a  man  of  some  education  who  practised  for 
money,  or  going  directly  to  the  shrine  of  healing.  Although  at 
such  shrines  healing  virtues  were  ascribed  to  the  god  alone,  there 
is  no  question  that  the  priests  were  versed  in  medical  lore  ; 4  many 
of  the  cures  which  patients  believed  were  due  to  the  touch  of  the 
divine  hand  can  only  have  been  due  to  surgical  operations  by  the 
priests.  The  most  famous  shrine  of  healing  was  the  temple  of 
Asclepius  at  Epidaurus,  with  which  the  worship  of  the  same  god 
at  Tricca,  Cos,  Pergamon,  and  Athens  was  closely  related.  The 
records  at  Epidaurus  testify  to  the  remarkable  cures  there  achieved.5 
These  may  have  been  due  in  a  measure  to  the  healthy  location, 
the  waters,  and  the  wise  advice  of  priests  who  inherited  the  knowl- 

l  Athenaeus,  7,  p.  309  D  ;  Petersen,  Hausgottesdienst,  n.  145  and  160;  Plutarch, 
Conjug.  praec.  138  B ;  Preller,  Demeter  and  Persephone,  353,  n.  58. 

8  Iliad,  ii.  514  f. ;   Odyssey,  4.  231 ;  19.  457 ;  Iliad,  i.  456. 

8  Lucian,  Apologia,  7,  p.  714.  4  Plato,  Politia,  10,  p.  599  C. 

6  Dittenberger,  Sylloge,  802-804  •  Merriam,  "  Aesculapia  as  revealed  by  inscrip- 
tions," GaMard's  Medical  Journal,  n,  no.  5. 


THE   WORSHIP   OF  THE   GODS 


i26  GREEK   RELIGION 

edge  of  generations.  The  central  feature  of  the  treatment  was 
the  incubatio  (fycotfiipnf;),  the  sleep  in  the  shrine  during  which  the 
god  appeared  to  the  patients  in  a  dream  either  to  heal  them  di- 
rectly by  divine  touch  or  to  give  them  medical  advice.1  Aris- 
tophanes gives  an  entertaining  account  of  the  way  Plutus,  god  of 
wealth,  was  cured  of  blindness  at  the  shrine  of  Asclepius  in  Athens.2 
The  order  of  the  attendant  that  all  patients  go  to  sleep,  the  appear- 
ance of  the  priest,  then  of  the  god  attended  by  laso  and  Panaceia 
and  the  boy  with  a  chest  of  drugs,  the  serpents  that  licked  dis- 
eased parts  —  all  these  represent  Athenian  belief  as  to  the  method 
of  healing  there  pursued.  Votive  offerings  of  the  part  cured,  eyes 
or  ears  or  hands  or  breasts,  together  with  liberal  fees  testified  to 
the  gratitude  of  the  patient. 

Properly  speaking  the  rites  connected  with  death  and  burial 
belong  with  the  worship  of  the  home ;  but  because  of  the  light 
they  throw  on  the  conception  of  what  follows  death,  they  will  be 
treated  in  Chapter  IV. 

Lastly  we  must  consider  the  private  worship,  i.e.  the  worship 
independent  of  the  state,  in  the  religious  associations  (duuroi, 
opyeuives).3  Associations  under  the  patronage  of  some  god  played 
a  large  part  in  Greek  life  after  the  fifth  century ;  for  the  most  part 
they  may  be  grouped  in  two  classes  :  associations  formed  for  the 
worship  of  some  foreign  god,  and  clubs  or  societies  formed  for 
various  ends,  but  with  one  of  the  state  gods  as  patron.  In  both 
classes  the  organization  was  much  the  same  ;  those  who  were 
elected  to  membership  paid  an  initiation  fee  and  made  themselves 
subject  to  the  laws  of  the  society;  officers  (priest,  treasurer,  etc.) 
were  elected  annually ;  all  members  were  on  the  same  democratic 
footing,  governing  the  society  by  "  decrees,"  imposing  fines  or 
granting  honors  by  their  votes,  in  much  the  same  manner  as  was 
done  in  the  assembly  of  the  state.  It  was  a  peculiarity  of  many 
of  these  societies,  especially  those  formed  for  the  worship  of  a 
foreign  god,  that  women,  freedmen,  and  slaves  were  admitted  on 
the  same  terms  as  citizens. 

1  Philostratus,  Vit.  Apoll.  i.  8-10;  Aristides,  Orat.  i.  570.          2  Plutus,  653  f. 
8  Foucart,  Des  associations  religieuses  ches  ies  Grecs,  1873. 


THE   WORSHIP   OF  THE   GODS  127 

The  clubs  or  societies  under  the  patronage  of  a  state  god  were 
of  most  varied  character.  The  biographer  of  Sophocles  states1 
that  he  formed  a  society  (0iWo?)  of  educated  men  who  honored 
the  Muses.  The  actors  in  the  theatre  had  associations  in  many 
cities  with  Dionysus  as  their  patron.  We  read  of  a  society  of 
sixty  bon-vivants  at  Athens,  whose  banquets  were  celebrated 
enough  to  attract  the  attention  of  Philip  of  Macedon ;  Heracles 
was  their  patron  deity.2  Even  the  courtesans  of  Paros  had  their 
society  with  its  priest  and  temple  servants.3  The  list  of  such  soci- 
eties included  benefit  clubs,  which  loaned  money  without  interest 
and  paid  funeral  expenses,  "  trades-unions"  of  artisans  in  the  same 
occupation,  literary  and  philosophical  clubs,  as  well  as  those 
formed  for  purely  social  ends.  Just  as  each  group  in  the  state 
had  its  religious  side  in  the  worship  of  some  god  or  hero,  so  each 
club,  whatever  its  purpose,  recognized  some  god  in  whose  worship 
the  club  joined. 

The  distinctively  religious  associations  consisted  primarily  of 
foreigners  who  united  in  the  worship  of  the  gods  of  their  home 
cities.  In  the  days  of  its  prosperity  thousands  of  foreign  residents 
took  up  their  abode  at  Athens,  especially  in  the  Peiraeus.  No 
law  forbade  them  from  carrying  on  the  worship  of  the  Mother  of 
the  Gods,  or  the  Thracian  Bendis,  or  the  Tyrian  Heracles,  in  their 
own  manner.4  It  was  only  when  they  wished  to  build  a  temple 
that  the  express  permission  of  the  city  was  needed.  For  example, 
when  the  people  of  Citium  wished  to  build  a  temple  to  their 
Aphrodite,  the  matter  was  brought  before  the  Boule  and  the 
Assembly,  and  received  favorable  action.5  Occasionally  one  of 
these  cults,  like  that  of  Artemis  Bendis,  was  adopted  by  the 
Athenian  state.  For  Athenian  citizens  to  join  associations  for  the 
worship  of  these  strange  gods  was  not  unusual,  although  it  was 
regarded  as  discreditable.  Demosthenes's  account  of  such  private 

1  Vita  Soph.  §  6.  2  Athenaeus,  14,  p.  614  D  ;  6,  p.  260  B. 

*Ath.  Mitt/i.  18  (1893)  21  f. 

4Cp.  Plato,  Politia.  i,  p.  327  and  schol.;  Dittenberger,  Sylloge,  633. 
5  Dittenberger,  Sylloge,  551. 


128 


GREEK   RELIGION 


worship1  may  fairly  be  regarded  as  expressing  the  sentiment  of 
the  Athenians  toward  these  crude,  weird  cults ;  and  yet  with  all 
their  crudeness  and  immoral  practices,  they  were  not  without 
influence  in  suggesting  to  the  Athenians  a  more  personal  type  of 
religion  than  that  which  found  expression  in  the  formal  worship  of 
the  state.  With  the  decay  of  the  city's  power  and  the  gradual 
neglect  of  its  public  worship,  private  religious  associations  in  some 
cases  took  over  the  worship  of  the  state.  A  recently  discovered 

inscription  describes  in  detail  the 
organization  of  the  lobakchoi,2  an 
association  which  carried  on  the 
Bacchus  worship  after  the  true 
Athenian  manner  in  a  temple  built 
above  the  old  state  shrine  of 
Dionysus  Lenaios.  The  fact  re- 
mains that  in  the  best  days  of  Greece 
the  state  and  the  family,  rather 
than  the  private  association,  were 
the  organizing  forces  of  religion. 

10.  The  Eleusinian  Mysteries.— 
The  cults  of  some  foreign  gods  won 
adherents  from  the  Greeks  them- 
selves, because  they  made  a  personal 
appeal ;  they  met  a  need  which  the 

inherited  ritual  and  splendid  ceremony  of  the  state  cults  did  not  even 
recognize  ;  it  is,  then,  no  mere  chance  that  so-called  mysteries  be- 
came a  large  factor  in  Greek  religion.  The  public  worship  of  the 
state  was  so  bound  up  with  the  political  and  social  conception  of  the 
state  that  it  meant  little  for  the  individual.  And  when  these  state- 
ideals  began  to  break  down,  when  the  personality  of  the  individual 
in  its  strength  and  in  its  weakness  began  to  be  more  clearly  recog- 
nized, men  sought  some  more  immediate  personal  relation  with  a 
god.  That  the  worship  of  Sabazius,3  for  example,  gained  a  hold 


FIG.  35.  —  GROUND    PLAN    OF 
THE  TELESTERION  AT  ELEUSIS 


1  Demosthenes,  18.  260. 

*Ath.  Mitth.  19  (1894)  248;  Maas,  Orpheus,  18  f. 


3  Cp.  p.  241. 


THE  WORSHIP   OF  THE  GODS 


129 


among  the  Greeks  is  proof  of  this  tendency  in  religion.  What 
these  private  worships  furnished  in  a  form  often  unworthy  and  dis- 
creditable, might  better  be  secured  in  the  old  and  respected 
worship  of  Demeter  at  Eleusis.  Apparently  Eleusis  grew  up  as  a 


FIG.  36. —  VIEW  OF  THE  RUINS  AT  ELEUSIS 

community  of  Demeter.  worshippers  governed  by  priests  of  Demeter. 
Only  after  bitter  conflict  with  the  developing  power  of  Athens,  was 
this  agricultural  priest-state  brought  under  Athenian  sway ;  in  its 
religious  influence  the  conquered  state  prevailed,  the  worship  of  the 
goddesses  became  the  most  important  cult  of  Athens,  it  gradually 
gained  adherents  all  over  Greece,  and  flourished  with  Olympia  and 
Delphi  in  Roman  days.  Excavations  on  the  site  of  the  shrine 
have  brought  striking  testimony  to  the  development  of  these 
"  mysteries."  Because  this  worship  furnished  the  appeal  of  reli- 
gion to  the  individual  and  the  assurance  of  a  real  life  after  death, 

GREEK  RELIGION  —  9 


1 3o 


GREEK   RELIGION 


while  at  the  same  time  it  had  the  respect  due  to  an  old  and 
sacred  Attic  cult,  its  rapid  growth  is  not  difficult  to  explain. 

The  shrine  of  Demeter  at  Eleusis  occupied  a  slope  facing  the 
bay  of  Salamis  and  not  far  from  the  water.  In  Roman  days  one 
entered  the  precinct  through  a  larger  and  a  smaller  gateway  ;  just 
inside  the  latter  was  a  temple  of  Pluto  where  the  rape  of  Per- 
sephone was  said  to  have  taken  place  ;  a  little  farther  on  was  the 
temple  of  Demeter  herself.  The  main  building,  the  Telesterion, 
differed  from  other  Greek  religious  houses  in  that  it  was  a  place  of 
assembly  large  enough  to  accommodate  the  crowds  of  worship- 


FIG.  37. —  VASE  WITH  FIGURES  IN  RELIEF  (St.  Petersburg) 
The  Eleusinian  officials  are  standing  between  seated  gods  and  goddesses. 

pers,  not  simply  a  home  for  some  god.  The  lower  story,  once 
surrounded  on  all  sides  by  some  twelve  steps  on  which  the 
initiated  might  sit  or  stand,  remains  in  part  to-day ;  of  the  second 
story  only  the  entrance  platform  is  left.  The  lower  hall  was  so 


filled  with  supporting  columns  that  the  view  of  any  rites  celebrated 
there  must  have  been  seriously  obstructed  ;  the  upper  hall  is  said 
to  have  had  similar  rows  of  seats  about  it  and  in  the  centre  a 
stage,  open  to  the  sky  and  surrounded  with  columns.1 

The  celebration  of  the  mysteries  was  in  charge  of  the  hierophant, 
selected  for  life  from  the  Eleusinian  family  of  the  Eumolpidae,  who 
was  known  only  by  his  official  title  after  his  election  to  the  position. 
The  name  indicates  that  it  was  his  function  to  exhibit  and  explain 
the  secret  symbols.  The  dadouchos  (torch-carrier),  the  herald, 
and  the  altar-priest  were  chosen  for  life  from  the  family  of  the 
Kerykes.  These  officials  with  their  assistants  had  charge  of  the 
sacrifices,  purifications,  and  other  ritual;  while  the  archon  basileus 
of  Athens  with  one  or  more  civic  commissions  exercised  super- 
vision over  the  shrine  in  the  name  of  the  state. 

Much  confusion  on  this  subject  has  been  due  to  a  misunder- 
standing of  the  word  "  mysteries."  If  there  had  been  any 
large  body  of  secret  doctrine,  some  traces  of  it  would  certainly 
have  reached  us  through  the  watchful  enemies  of  the  old  religion. 
We  are  expressly  told  that  Greek  mysteries  consisted  of  things 
done  or  acted,  and  sentences  pronounced  (TO.  Spwfteva  KCU  TO. 
A.eyo/u,eva).2  Such  ritual-dramas  were  not  foreign  to  other  Greek 
cults ;  at  Delphi,  for  instance,  the  purification  of  Apollo  after 
killing  the  dragon  was  represented  by  the  worshippers  once 
in  eight  years.  At  Eleusis  the  drama  was  perhaps  more  symbolic, 
more  secret,  more  sacred.  For  the  Greek  a  mystery  meant  a 
ritual-drama,  beheld  and  shared  only  by  the  initiated. 

In  the  fifth  century  the  mysteries  included  two  festivals.  The 
so-called  "  lesser  mysteries "  at  Agrae  early  in  March  served  as 
a  preparation  for  the  rites  at  Eleusis,  in  that  only  those  who 
had  first  been  initiated  here  were  eligible  candidates  for  the 
"greater  mysteries."  It  was  in  March  that  Persephone  returned 
from  the  lower  world  to  her  mother,  so  that  it  is  natural  for  her  to 
be  the  central  figure  in  a  rite  at  this  season  of  the  year ;  of  the 

1  Plutarch,  Pericles,  13,  p.  159. 

8  Pausanias,  2.  37.  3  f.  (at  Lerna) ;  3.  32.  2  (to  Dionysus). 


132  GREEK   RELIGION 

festival  at  Agrae  we  know  hardly  more  than  that  Persephone  and 
Dionysus,  not  Demeter,  were  in  the  foreground. 

The  "  greater  mysteries  "  were  preceded  by  a  truce  between  the 
Greek  states  to  permit  worshippers  from  outside  Attica  to  travel 
thither  unmolested.1  Candidates  for  initiation  obtained  a  director 
or  "  confessor "  (//.uo-raywyos),  whose  duty  it  was  to  advise  them 
as  to  necessary  purifications,  to  instruct  them  as  to  the  meaning 
of  the  ritual,  and  to  serve  as  their  guide  during  the  whole 
ceremony.  On  the  fifteenth  of  Boedromion  (i.e.  the  beginning 
of  September)  began  the  fast  which  was  rigidly  observed  during 
the  daytime  and  prohibited  some  kinds  of  food  at  night.  The 
next  day  formal  proclamation  was  made  by  the  hierophant  and 
dadouchos  in  front  of  the  Painted  Porch  (o-roa  Troi/ciAr/),  warning 
away  the  impure  and  barbarians,  and  inviting  others  to  share 
the  worship  of  Demeter.  The  day  was  named  dA.uSe  /x,xrrai 
because  those  who  were  to  take  part  in  the  mysteries  bathed 
(and  cleansed  the  pigs  they  were  to  sacrifice)  in  the  sea  near 
Athens.  Two  days  more  were  spent  at  Athens  in  sacrifices  to 
Demeter  and  to  Asclepius  as  well,  for  as  Asclepius  had  himself 
been  purified  for  initiation  in  the  mysteries,  so  thereafter  new- 
comers might  have  an  "  Epidaurian  initiation "  (TO.  "E-7ri8uLvpia 
/iveiv).2  The  ceremonies  at  Athens  ended  with  the  lacchus 
procession  to  Eleusis  on  the  nineteenth  of  Boedromion.  All 
who  were  to  share  the  worship  at  Eleusis,  early  in  the  fifth 
century  some  30,000  in  number,3  set  out  along  the  Sacred  Way 
bearing  the  image  of  the  god  lacchus  (a  form  of  Dionysus  which 
had  been  adopted  into  the  Eleusinian  worship)  together  with 
symbols  brought  from  Eleusis  (TO.  Upd),  and  chanting  hymns  to 
the  god.  Though  the  distance  is  barely  thirteen  miles,  sacrifices 
at  different  shrines  and  other  ceremonies  along  the  way  delayed 


1  References  for  the  following  account  are  to  be  found  in  Mommsen,  Feste  der 
Stadt  At  hen,  204  f. 

2  It  may  be  that  this  initiation  might  take  the  place  of  initiation  in  the  lesser 
mysteries  in  the  spring ;  see  Mommsen,  ibid.,  p.  290, 

8  Herodotus,  8.  65. 


THE   WORSHIP   OF  THE  GODS 


the   slowly  moving   multitude   until  it  was  late  at  night   before 
they  arrived. 

During  the  next  three  days  (and  nights,  TrawuxtScs)  the  worship 
at  Eleusis  included  (i)  sacrifices  on  the  different  altars  of  the 
precinct,  (2)  the  initiation  of  new-comers,  which  included  sacri- 
fices, purifications,  and  some  instruction  as  to  the  rites  they 
were  to  share  now  for  the  first  time,  and  (3)  the  mysteries 


FIG.  38.  — MARBLE  FUNERARY  URN  (Terme  Museum,  Rome) 
At  the  right  the  initiate  is  sacrificing ;  in  the  center  the  purification  is  represented, 
and  at  the  left  he  sees  the  vision  of  the  goddesses,  Demeter  and  Persephone. 

proper.  The  latter  consisted  of  two  parts,  the  second  of  which 
was  reserved  for  those  who  had  shared  the  first  stage  at  least 
once  in  a  former  year.  The  night  of  the  twenty-second  was 
spent  in  torch-dances  and  visits  to  the  spots  made  sacred  by 
the  Demeter  legend ;  the  fast  of  the  previous  nine  days  was 
ended  by  taking  a  peculiar  drink,  the  kykeon  (KVKCUV,  made  from 
barley  meal,  mint,  and  water),  and  symbols  kept  from  profane 
view  were  exhibited  to  the  mystae  or  handled  by  them.  Perhaps 
also  some  sacred  formulae  were  then  for  the  first  time  imparted 
to  the  initiates.1 

1  Clement  of  Alexandria  (Protr.  2.  21)  gives  the  "  confession  "  of  the  initiates 
in  the  following  form :  tvfiffrevffa,  %-iriov  rbv  KVKewva,  eXapov  £K  Klffr-qs, 
fyyevffdnevos  bireOtn-qv  tls  icd\a0ov  xal  IK  Ka\d6ov  els  KlffTijv.  This  indicates 
that  the  mystae  tasted  cakes  contained  in  the  mystic  cista.  For  the  symbols  see 
Apuleius,  Apol.  de  magia,  c.  55. 


134 


GREEK  RELIGION 


On  their  second  visit  to  Eleusis  the  mystae  were  admitted 
to  the  crowning  ceremony  of  all,  the  "  visions "  (cTroTTTtta). 
Gathered  in  the  great  hall  of  the  mysteries  (rcXco-TT/piov)  they 
saw  scenes  representing  Demeter's  joy  in  the  recovery  of  her 
daughter,  representing  the  underworld  where  this  same  Persephone 

is  queen,  representing 
perhaps  the  birth  of 
lacchus,  the  estab- 
lishment of  the  Festival 
at  Eleusis,  and  the 
sending  out  of  Trip- 
tolemus  to  distribute 
among  men  the  grain 
of  De meter.  To  call 
these  scenes  a  drama 
suggests  something 
more  pretentious  than 
the  evidence  warrants ; 
the  ritual  of  the  pre- 
ceding night  might 
better  receive  that 
name.  In  these  "  vis- 
ions "  symbols  were 
sufficient  to  suggest 
scenes  of  the  familiar 
story,  while  images 
of  the  gods  showed 

Persephone  with  Hades  in  the  lower  world,  the  mourning  Demeter, 
and  Persephone  reunited  with  her  mother.  Apparently  the  rites 
ended  with  this  blessing  by  the  hierophant :  "  Dread  and  rever- 
end are  the  goddesses ;  most  blessed  of  men  on  the  earth  he 
whom  they  truly  love ;  speedily  they  are  his  escorts  to  the  great 
home,  to  Plutus  who  grants  abundance  to  mortal  men."1 

The  "  Homeric   hymn "  to  Demeter  contains  the  cult  legend 

1  Homeric  Hymn  to  Demeter,  487  f. 


FIG.  39.  —  FRAGMENT  OF  A  SMALL  VOTIVE 
FIGURE  (Eleusis) 

Persephone  stands  by  the  seated  Demeter,  perhaps 
in  the  form  in  which  the  reunion  of  the  two  god- 
desses was  exhibited  to  the  worshippers  at  Eleusis. 


THE   WORSHIP  OF  THE   GODS  135 

which  serves  as  a  commentary  on  the  ritual.  Persephone,  pluck- 
ing flowers  with  her  attendant  maidens,  was  seized  by  the  king  of 
the  dead  and  borne  away  to  his  realm  below.  Demeter,  who 
had  heard  her  daughter's  last  cry  as  she  disappeared  beneath 
the  surface  of  the  earth,  hurried  over  sea  and  land  for  nine 
days  in  search  of  her.  Learning  that  Hades  had  carried  her 
off,  Demeter  came  to  Eleusis  in  the  guise  of  an  old  woman, 
where  the  daughters  of  the  king  found  her  sitting  by  the  Par- 
thenian  well.  She  was  persuaded  to  break  her  fast  and  come 
to  the  king's  house.  At  length  her  divinity  was  revealed,  and 
she  established  the  mystic  rites,  but  still  the  mourning  mother 
did  not  permit  the  grain  to  sprout.  The  hymn  closes  with  the 
account  of  Demeter's  joy  when  Persephone  was  restored  to  her, 
and  with  expressions  of  gratitude  for  the  gift  of  the  grain  and 
for  the  revelation  of  the  mysteries. 

The  worshippers  came  to  Eleusis  veiled  like  Demeter,  they 
imitated  her  wanderings  in  their  torch-dances  on  the  seashore. 
They  too  had  fasted  nine  days,  and  they  broke  their  fast  with  the 
same  mystic  "kykeon"  which  Demeter  had  drunk.  The  Par- 
thenian  well  (Callichore)  where  she  rested,  the  house  of  the  king 
of  Eleusis,  the  temple  he  had  built  for  the  goddess  in  the  time  of 
her  grief,  were  the  spots  where  they  sought  to  realize  her  divine 
presence.  The  symbols  they  handled  and  the  "  visions  "  in  which 
the  mysteries  culminated  brought  the  mother  and  the  daughter 
very  near  to  the  worshippers.  The  reunion  of  Persephone  with 
her  mother,  the  continued  life  of  Persephone  in  the  realm  of 
Hades,  the  sending  out  of  Triptolemus  —  these  scenes  constituted 
a  drama  of  things  divine.  Men  shared  the  experiences  of  the 
goddess  in  her  sorrow,  in  her  joy,  in  her  blessings  to  men ;  and 
as  they  shared  her  experiences,  they  felt  a  mystic  bond  uniting 
them  with  the  mother  and  the  daughter.  To  be  able  to  claim 
these  gods  as  their  personal  protectors  and  friends,  gods  who 
sympathized  with  them  in  the  deepest  human  experiences,  this, 
rather  than  any  new  knowledge,  was  what  men  gained  at  Eleusis. 

"We  alone  have  the  sun  and  its  gracious  light,  we  who  have 


136 


GREEK   RELIGION 


been  initiated  in  the  mysteries  and  have  lived  a  pious  life  toward 
strangers  and  toward  our  own  people,"  sings  Aristophanes's  chorus 
in  the  flowery  meadows  of  the  lower  world.1  Again,  in  the  words 

of  Sophocles,  "  Thrice 
blessed  they  of  men 
who  see  these  mystic 
rites  before  they  go 
to  Hades's  realm. 
These  alone  have  life 
there,  for  others  there 
all  things  are  evil."2 
The  universal  testi- 
mony of  Greek  litera- 
ture teaches  us  that 
the  most  important 

result  of  the  mysteries 

9    '    '  'If '"'I   II 

was  this  clear  hope  of 

a  real  life  after  death. 

All    /-          1       U    V  A    • 

All  Greeks  believed  m 
the  continued  exist- 
ence of  the  soul, 
though  such  existence 
hardly  deserved  the 
name  "  life."  The  in- 
itiated at  Eleusis  felt 
for  themselves  the 
favor  of  Persephone, 
queen  of  the  dead; 
if  the  goddess  of  the 

dead  accepted  their  worship  here,  they  might  expect  her  favoring 
care  when  they  came  into  her  presence  after  death.  Moreover 
they  saw  Hades  in  the  "  visions,"  and  they  found  out  for  them- 

1  Aristophanes,  Ran.  455  f.;  cp.  Pindar,  Frag.  114  (102)  ;  Plato,  Phaedo,  69  C; 
Aristeides,  Or.  Eleus.  259. 

2  Sophocles,  Frag.  719. 


FIG.  40. —  MARBLE  RELIEF  FROM  ELEUSIS 

Demeter  (at  the  left)  is  giving  the  grain  to  Triptol- 
emus,  while  Persephone  (at  the  right)  places  a 
crown  on  his  head. 


THE  WORSHIP  OF  THE   GODS  137 

selves  that  he  was  not  the  dread  king  of  Homer  but  the  fit  con- 
sort for  Demeter's  daughter.1  Nor  was  this  hope  for  themselves 
alone.  The  worshippers  shared  the  pangs  of  Demeter's  sorrow 
when  Hades  carried  off  her  daughter,  they  shared  the  love  that 
demanded  the  return  of  Persephone,  and  they  shared  the  joy  of 
the  goddess  when  that  love  won  back  its  object  even  from  death. 
Could  the  mother  or  husband  or  brother  from  some  bereaved 
home  have  shared  these  experiences  without  feeling  that  his 
love  too  would  sometime  be  satisfied  again,  that  in  the  life  after 
death  he  would  rejoin  the  loved  ones  he  had  lost?  Because 
they  vivified  the  belief  in  a  future  life,  while  at  the  same  time 
they  met  the  religious  needs  of  the  individual,  the  Eleusinian 
mysteries  were  perhaps  the  most  important  form  of  worship  in 
ancient  Greece. 

1  Plutarch,  De  def.  orac.  422  C. 


CHAPTER   III 
THE   GREEK   GODS 

1.  The  Gods  in  their  Relation  to  the  World.  —  According  to 
the  Hebrew  conception  the  material  world,  plants  and  animals, 
man  himself,  were  the  direct  creation  of  God ;  the  Greeks  ex- 
plained the  world  as  the  result  of  a  process  of  growth  or  develop- 
ment, in  which  the  higher  and  more  complex  forms  of  existence 
grew  out  of  simpler  forms.  The  gods  instead  of  creating  the 
world  were  a  part  of  the  world,  in  the  same  sense  that  men  were 
a  part  of  it.  Men  originally  sprang  from  the  earth,  or  developed 
from  lower  animals,  or  —  some  said  —  were  the  one  thing  that 
the  gods  did  make.1  The  gods  for  the  most  part  traced  their 
descent  back  through  Cronus  and  Rhea  to  that  same  primeval 
Heaven  and  Earth  (Ouranos  and  Gaia)  from  which  came  the 
physical  world.  The  three  generations  of  the  gods,  marking 
successively  the  rule  of  force,  the  rule  of  cunning,  and  the  rule 
of  reason,  and  the  crises  which  separated  them,  belong  to  that 
half-philosophical  explanation  of  the  origin  of  things  which  was 
offered  by  Greek  mythology ;  Greek  religion  started  with  the 
world  we  know,  a  world  in  which  gods  and  men  are  the  active 
forces. 

That  the  forces  at  work  in  the  world  were  conceived  by  the 
Greeks  as  personal  beings,  after  the  type  of  the  human  will,  has 
already  been  explained  ; 2  indeed,  it  is  difficult  for  scientist  or 
child  or  primitive  man  wholly  to  avoid  this  view.  Both  in  wor- 

1  [Pindar],  Frag.   84,  Bergk,   Poet.  Lyr.   Graec.  3.  711;    cp.  Odyssey,  19.  163; 
Hesiod,   Theog.  570  f. ;  Aristophanes,  Aves,  686.    The  whole  subject  is  treated  in 
Preller-Robert,  Griech.  Myth.  i.  29-105. 

2  Cp.  Introduction,  p.  30. 


THE   GREEK  GODS  139 

ship  and  in  myth  the  Greek  freely  created  for  himself  a  personal 
universe ;  his  world  was  made  up  of  men  and  gods,  many  gods, 
each  of  them  (like  a  man)  working  from  some  one  point  or  within 
some  definite  sphere.  What  man  can  use,  what  helps  or  hinders 
him,  the  source  of  good  and  the  source  of  evil,  find  expression  in 
these  Greek  gods.  Such  a  belief  enables  a  man  to  handle  evil 
like  a  human  enemy,  to  seek  blessing  as  from  human  benefactors ; 
all  that  affects  him  is  part  of  the  intelligent  society  to  which  he 
himself  belongs.  The  fire,  as  useful  as  it  is  treacherous,  is  the 
province  of  Hephaestus ;  all  the  dangers  and  changeableness  of  the 
sea  are  reflected  in  Poseidon  and  his  followers ;  an  Artemis  is  there 
to  guide  the  hunter,  a  Demeter  to  make  the  grain  sprout,  a  Hermes 
or  Apollo  to  watch  over  the  herds ;  Athena  is  the  spirit  of  wisdom, 
Hermes  of  shrewdness,  Ares  of  tumultuous  war ;  even  the  spirits 
of  vengeance,  the  Erinyes,  may  be  turned  into  powers  of  blessing. 
In  a  word  the  Greek  gods  are  in  the  world,  not  above  the  world, 
superior  beings  who  embody  in  personal  form  all  the  forces  that 
enter  into  human  life. 

Such  is  the  truth,  which  becomes  obscured  when  the  attempt  is 
made  to  identify  the  gods  of  worship  with  objects  or  processes  in 
nature.  Helios,  Selene,  and  Eos  belonged  to  the  poetry  of  myth 
rather  than  to  religion.  But  the  Zeus  of  Olympia  and  Dodona  was 
not  the  sky,  even  though  one  hears  the  expression,  "  Zeus  rains." 
Apollo  at  Delphi  was  not  the  sun,  nor  did  the  Artemis  of  Delos 
wear  a  crescent  to  suggest  that  she  was  the  moon.  Poseidon  was 
not  a  personification  of  the  sea  nor  Dionysus  of  the  wine.  In  each 
instance  the  god  was  that  superhuman  person  whose  power  was 
ever  made  manifest  in  the  fact  or  process  of  the  natural  world. 

The  epic  was  the  first  attempt  to  treat  these  gods  as  rulers  of 
the  whole  known  world.1  The  account  of  them  is  interesting  in 
that  it  lays  down  the  lines  of  later  belief  for  worship  almost  as 
much  as  for  myth.  Because  the  epic  statement  furnished  the 
background  for  the  worshipper's  thought,  it  is  all  important  for 
our  attempt  to  understand  the  Greek  view  of  the  rule  of  the  gods. 
1  Mythology  of  Greece  and  Rome,  Part  I,  Chap,  i,  "  The  Gods  in  Homer." 


I4o  GREEK   RELIGION 

The  world  was  governed  by  a  royal  family  in  Olympus,  in  which 
King  Zeus  had  far  greater  power  than  any  other  individual  though 
his  throne  was  endangered  when  the  other  gods  combined  against 
him.  The  court  of  Zeus  was  like  that  of  Menelaus  or  Alcinous ; 
at  the  banquet  of  these  divine  princes  Athena  obtained  permission 
for  Odysseus  to  return  home,  and  Hera  vainly  taunted  Zeus  for 
planning  reverses  to  the  Greeks.1  Once  in  the  poems  Zeus  sum- 
moned a  popular  assembly  of  all  the  divine  spirits,  like  the  assem- 
bly at  which  Agamemnon  tried  to  test  the  spirit  of  his  soldiers.2 
It  is  Zeus  who  dispenses  good  and  evil  to  men,  Zeus  to  whom  the 
epic  heroes  commonly  pray.  Poseidon,  Hera,  even  Athena,  try 
without  lasting  success  to  circumvent  his  purposes.  So  long  as 
the  other  gods  keep  within  their  own  sphere,  Zeus  does  not  inter- 
fere with  them.  Nature  is  subject  to  the  gods ;  Athena  sends  a 
fair  wind,  Poseidon  a  tempest ;  the  sun  is  hastened  in  his  course 
at  the  wish  of  the  gods.  The  events  of  history  are  guided  by 
Zeus ;  Achilles's  anger  and  the  story  of  the  Iliad  are  part  of  his 
plan,  and  Troy  falls  as  he  had  purposed.  Whatever  the  individual 
is  or  does  may  be  referred  to  the  gods  —  the  beauty  of  Paris,  the 
might  of  Ajax,  the  breaking  of  the  truce  by  Pandarus,  the  bad 
bargain  Glaucus  made  in  exchanging  his  armor. 

As  an  actor  in  the  poem,  however,  Zeus  cannot  always  follow 
his  personal  desires ;  when  Sarpedon  is  hard  pressed  by  Patroclus, 
Zeus  questions  whether  to  let  his  friend  die  or  snatch  him  away  to 
his  home  in  Lycia,  till  Hera  reminds  him  that  it  is  Sarpedon's  lot 
to  die  at  this  time.8  "  Neither  men  nor  gods  can  ward  it  off, 
when  the  baneful  lot  of  death  overtakes  a  man."  4  Is  this  lot  or 
portion  a  fate  higher  than  Zeus?  or  is  it  part  of  the  "ancient 
decrees  of  the  gods  "  which  Zeus  is  bound  to  obey?5  The  ques- 
tion is  never  asked  in  such  form  by  the  poet,  who  recognizes  no 
power  higher  than  that  of  Zeus.  That  which  befalls  man,  his  good 
or  evil  fortune,  his  duty,  the  limitations  of  his  life  —  these  consti- 

1  Odyssey,  5.  1-42;  Iliad,  i.  559.  8  Iliad,  16.  431  f. 

*  Iliad,  20.  I  f.  4  Odyssey,  3.  236. 

*  For  the  literature  see  Buchholtz,  Die  komerischen  Realien,  3,  i.  47  f. 


THE   GREEK   GODS  141 

tute  his  divinely  appointed  lot,  for  man  does  not  control  his  own 
destiny.  The  lot  included  an  "  ought "  which  he  might  disobey 
(he  might  act  virlp  p.6pov,  inrep  ala-av),  as  well  as  the  inevitable  to 
which  he  must  bow.  With  all  the  other  human  characteristics 
transferred  to  the  gods,  this  belief  in  a  "  lot  "  governing  man's  life 
was  also  transferred  to  them.  The  gods  also  were  sometimes 
spoken  of  as  subject  to  the  same  kind  of  destiny ;  if  Zeus  saved 
Sarpedon  he  would  be  acting  v-n-cp  /AO/OOV,  contrary  to  the  "  ought " 
which  he  felt  binding  on  himself.  We  are  not  to  infer  that  there 
was  any  definite  conception  of  a  fate  to  which  the  gods  were  sub- 
ject ;  the  language  which  produces  this  impression  is  due  to  that 
epic  tendency  which  makes  its  gods  so  human. 

The  epic  picture  of  the  gods  as  a  council  of  world-rulers  with 
Zeus  at  their  head  determines  the  lines  of  later  thought.  All- 
powerful  gods  control  events  according  to  a  perfect  plan,  says  the 
pious  Xenophon.  Success  or  failure  in  war  is  referred  directly  to 
the  gods  ;  the  gods  preserve  the  Athenians  from  the  evil  results  of 
their  poor  political  administration ;  the  basis  of  laws  and  morality 
is  assigned  to  the  gods.  The  good  or  bad  fortune  of  individuals, 
their  wisdom,  their  righteousness,  and  their  sin  are  part  of  the 
divine  rule.  The  crops  are  cared  for  by  the  gods,  for  the  gods 
determine  the  weather.  In  general  Homer's  phrase  for  success, 
"  with  divine  favor "  (crvv  flew),  and  the  contrary  (dveu  0eu>v)  con- 
tinue to  be  used,  especially  in  poetry.  The  extreme  position  on 
the  one  hand  is  that  men  are  merely  tools  of  the  gods ;  on  the 
other  hand  we  read  that  the  gods  hurry  men  on  in  the  course  they 
themselves  have  chosen,  or  again,  that  men  succeed  in  doing  some 
things  because  the  gods  are  negligent.  It  is  the  normal  belief  that 
gods  and  men  work  together  in  all  the  events  of  human  history ; 
naturally  the  victorious  in  war  emphasize  the  human  side,  the  con- 
quered refer  to  the  defeat  as  divinely  sent.1 

The  guiding  power  in  history  is  vaguely  called  "  the  gods " 
or  " the  divine "  (TO  delay)*  The  phrase  " divine  government  "  is 

1  Schoemann,  Griech.  Alt.  2.  152  f. 

2  Rohde,  Die  Religion  der  Griechen,  10  f. 


142  GREEK   RELIGION 

hardly  appropriate,  for  the  thought  of  a  definite  plan  worked  out 
in  the  world,  or  of  any  real  goal  toward  which  history  was  tending, 
was  quite  absent  from  popular  belief.  The  power  man  recognized 
outside  himself  was  called  "the  gods,"  or  sometimes  "god"; 
each  man  and  each  city  looked  for  help  to  certain  gods ;  it  was 
left  for  philosophy  to  ask  what  the  gods  were  making  of  the  world. 
At  the  same  time  there  was  a  strange  lack  of  definiteness  as  to  the 
relation  of  the  gods  to  each  other  in  the  government  of  the  world. 
The  practical  side  of  the  matter  amounted  to  this,  that  if  a  man 
prayed  to  the  right  god  he  might  hope  to  get  what  he  wanted.  It 
is  therefore  no  isolated  case  when  Xenophon  asked  of  the  oracle 
to  what  god  he  should  look  if  he  wished  to  prosper  on  the  ex- 
pedition with  Cyrus.1  As  in  worship  one  god  was  supreme  at 
one  festival,  another  at  another,  and  there  was  no  priesthood  to 
make  an  absolute  hierarchy,  so  in  religious  belief  men  were  con- 
tent to  say  that  the  "  divine  "  governed  the  world,  without  asking 
how  it  was  that  many  gods  maintained  one  government. 

2.  The  Nature  of  the  Gods  as  Individuals.  —  If  the  worshipper 
ever  asked  himself  what  sort  of  a  being  the  god  was,  his  answer  to 
this  question  would  again  have  been  determined  by  the  epic,  so 
true  is  it  that  the  epic  picture  of  the  gods  formed  the  background 
for  all  later  thought.  The  Homeric  account  of  the  nature  of 
the  gods  as  individuals  may  be  very  briefly  stated  as  follows  : a 
While  the  Greek  gods  were  always  spirits  akin  to  man,  it  remained 
for  the  epic,  as  it  were,  to  clothe  them  with  flesh  and  blood.  The 
epic  preserves  a  clear  line  of  demarcation  between  the  lesser  gods 
and  the  greatest  men  in  that  the  gods  possess  faculties  far  less 
limited  than  men,  the  gods  are  free  from  the  difficulties  and  dis- 
tresses of  human  life,  the  gods  have  not  to  fear  death.  Though 
Hephaestus  is  used  to  mean  "  fire,"  and  Ares  to  mean  "  war,"  the 
usage  is  purely  poetic  metonymy ;  neither  Ares  nor  Hephaestus 
nor  any  of  the  other  gods  in  the  poems  really  represent  physical 
phenomena.  Everything  is  in  human  moulds.  The  gods  have  their 
homes  on  Olympus,  where  they  live  and  eat  and  sleep,  like  men  ; 
1  Xenophon,  Anab.  3. 1.  6.  8  Mythology  of  Greece  and  Rome  37  f. 


THE   GREEK  GODS  143 

but  their  beauty,  the  rapidity  of  their  movement,  the  power  of 
their  voices,  their  size,  bear  no  comparison  to  man's.  Most  of 
the  gods  move  from  place  to  place  and  even  descend  to  the  battle 
ground  before  Troy  in  order  to  carry  out  their  purposes ;  only 
Zeus  rules  from  Ida,  watching  the  course  of  events  and  controlling 
gods  and  men  by  his  messages.  The  gods  are  not  omniscient ; 
Zeus  himself  stops  to  plan,  sometimes  his  attention  is  relaxed,  and 
it  is  possible  to  deceive  him.  Yet  the  gods  can  see  much  farther 
than  man  in  space  and  in  time  ;  they  are  far  wiser  than  man,  and 
human  wisdom  comes  from  them.  It  is  in  their  feelings  that  they 
are  most  like  men.  The  hatred  of  Poseidon  for  Odysseus,  the 
quick  anger  of  Zeus  with  Athena  and  with  Hera,  the  boasts  and 
threats  and  taunts  of  Zeus,  Hera's  pity  for  the  Greeks,  her 
quarrelsome  or  sulky  attitude  toward  Zeus,  the  sensitiveness  of 
Poseidon,  the  fondness  of  the  gods  for  banquets,  the  amours  of 
Zeus  with  goddesses  and  with  mortal  women  —  these  are  the 
qualities  which  mark  the  gods  as  essentially  human  in  their  na- 
ture. Only  in  poems  which  grew  up  as  did  the  Greek  epic,  only 
in  lays  sung  to  amuse  the  princes  and  the  people,  could  gods  be 
treated  with  such  frank  license.1  The  process  was  aided  by  the  fact 
that  the  Apollo  or  Poseidon  of  the  epic  was  not  exactly  the  Apollo 
or  Poseidon  worshipped  by  any  one  audience  to  which  the  bard 
sang.  The  result,  this  legacy  of  gods  universally  recognized  and 
most  human  in  their  nature,  not  only  determined  the  character  of 
other  Greek  myths ;  it  was  also  a  force  directly  and  indirectly 
modifying  the  god  of  each  local  shrine  in  the  thought  of  his 
worshippers. 

If  now  the  reader  will  change  his  point  of  view  from  that  of  the 
epic  .audience  to  that  of  the  worshipper,  the  inherent  differences 

1  It  is  easy  to  account  for  the  unreligious,  undignified,  even  unmoral  character 
of  these  gods,  when  one  remembers  the  circumstances  under  which  the  poems 
grew  up.  An  after-dinner  audience  demanded  amusement  from  the  bard,  nor  was 
it  in  any  mood  to  criticise  religious  conceptions.  Demodocus,  for  example 
( Odyssey,  8.  266  f.),  handled  his  theme  to  meet  the  wishes  of  his  audience;  other 
bards  no  doubt  did  the  same ;  and  the  gods  of  Homer  are  the  result  of  this  con- 
vivial atmosphere,  only  tempered  by  the  Greek  sense  of  beauty. 


144  GREEK   RELIGION 

between  the  two  in  their  conception  of  what  a  god  is  will  prove 
quite  as  striking  as  the  similarities.  The  differences  may  be  found 
in  the  practices  by  which  men  sought  to  learn  the  will  of  the 
gods,1  though  they  are  less  noticeable  than  in  other  forms  of 
sacred  rite.  In  the  epic,  revelation  by  theophanies  or  portents  or 
prophets  gives  an  idea  not  at  variance  with  the  epic  doctrine  of 
the  gods ;  for  in  thus  guiding  men's  actions  the  gods  are  but 
carrying  out  their  plans  as  rulers  of  the  world.  That  theophanies 
and  divine  guidance  come  primarily  to  the  individual  in  whom  the 
god  has  a  personal  interest,  as  Athena  is  interested  in  Diomedes 
and  in  Odysseus,  may  be  regarded  as  part  of  the  economy  of 
the  poems ;  still  the  kindly  interest  of  the  gods  in  their  worshippers 
was  included  in  the  heritage  which  later  religious  belief  received 
from  the  epic.  The  deceitfulness  of  signs  and  dreams  was  a  part 
of  human  experience,  not  forgotten  in  the  epic,  but  in  the  epic 
gods  forgetfulness  or  deceit  are  no  peculiar  blemish.  In  later 
times,  on  the  contrary,  the  doctrine  of  signs,  prophets,  and  oracles 
assumes  absolute  knowledge  on  the  part  of  the  god,  and  it  leaves 
no  place  for  careless  oversight  by  the  god.  The  personal  element 
in  signs  is  strikingly  absent ;  it  is  not  clear  in  every  instance  what 
god  is  supposed  to  give  the  sign,  nor  whether  the  pious  man  may 
lay  any  special  claim  to  such  guidance.  The  spirit  of  Apollo 
which  overmastered  the  priestess  on  the  tripod  or  enlightened  the 
gifted  seer  implies,  it  is  true,  a  god  who  could  immediately  touch 
the  human  mind  with  inspiring  power ;  the  thunderbolt  of  Zeus 
comes  from  the  god  who  rules  in  the  heavens  ;  on  the  other  hand, 
the  ordinary  divination  from  sacrifices  is  a  peculiarly  impersonal, 
mechanical  method  of  determining  whether  the  worship  is  accept- 
able or  not.  The  fact  that  the  gods  are  supposed  to  guide  human 
action  and  are  not  supposed  to  show  their  own  nature  in  what  we 
have  called  revelation,  is  the  reason  why  we  get  no  more  light 
from  this  source  as  to  what  men  thought  the  gods  to  be. 

In  worship  proper,  i.e.  in  the  ritual  of  different  shrines  where 
men  sought  the  blessing  of  the  gods,  two  different  forces  were  at 
1  Cp.  Chap,  i,  supra. 


THE   GREEK   GODS  145 

work  to  determine  men's  thought  of  the  gods.  Here  the  contrast 
between  the  epic  point  of  view  and  the  point  of  view  natural  to  the 
worship  at  these  shrines  was  very  marked,  although  the  differences 
were  more  or  less  blunted  in  the  Athens  of  the  fifth  century  B.C. 
In  the  first  place,  as  was  pointed  out  in  the  Introduction  (p.  22  f.), 
worship  was  carried  on  at  countless  particular  shrines,  at  each  of 
which  a  peculiar  phase  of  one  god  —  to  the  exclusion  of  all  other 
gods  for  the  time  being  —  was  approached  with  sacred  rites.  At 
Athens,  for  instance,  we  know  of  some  twelve  centres  of  Artemis 
worship,  seven  centres  of  Aphrodite  worship,  perhaps  twelve  of 
Athena  worship.1  In  each  cult  of  Artemis  she  has  a  different 
epithet,  and  the  origin  of  each  cult  is  different ;  in  some  instances 
the  Artemis  of  one  cult  is  extremely  like  that  of  a  second,  or 
again  the  goddess  may  appear  in  such  different  forms  as  Lysi- 
zonos  (childbirth),  Agrotera  (hunting),  and  Boulaia  (wise  counsel). 
Nothing  could  better  illustrate  the  particularism  of  worship  than 
this  series  of  Artemis  cults.  How  goddesses  with  such  different 
functions  became  fused  into  one  cannot  be  explained  in  detail. 
The  process  began  many  hundreds  of  years  before  Homer ;  the 
rise  and  fall  of  cities,  tribes,  and  nations  played  a  part  in  it; 
perhaps  one  of  the  last  forces  tending  in  this  direction  was  the 
epic.  The  fact  remains  that  worship  dealt  with  gods  distinct  and 
local,  while  all  the  forces  of  civilization  and  of  literature  were  at 
work  to  make  connections  between  them.  The  unity  of  the  god 
found  expression  in  the  general  name  Artemis;  the  phase  con- 
nected with  the  particular  shrine  was  marked  by  the  added  epithet 
name,  e.g.  Agrotera  or  Mounychia ;  such  were  the  two  poles  be- 
tween which  the  worshipper's  thought  of  the  god's  nature  must 
have  played. 

So  far  as  the  rites  of  worship  are  concerned  the  discussion  in 
the  preceding  chapter  has  shown,  in  the  first  place,  that  ordinarily 
the  element  of  mysticism  was  not  prominent.  The  religion  of 
Dionysus  distinctly  presupposes  the  idea  of  a  soul  akin  to  the 
divine  in  its  nature,  which  may  become  merged  in  the  god  or 

1  Preller-Robert,  Griech.  Myth.  Index  II,  s.v.  Athen. 
GREEK   RELIGION  —  IO 


146  GREEK   RELIGION 

possessed  by  the  god  as  the  result  of  worship.  Imitative  rites  in 
the  service  of  other  gods  produced  a  sympathy  between  the  god 
and  his  worshippers,  which  was  by  no  means  free  from  mysticism. 
On  the  other  hand,  the  enlightenment  by  which  Apollo  enabled 
his  prophets  to  see  the  future  was  rather  a  gift  from  outside  than 
"  inspiration  "  in  the  strict  sense  of  the  term.  In  the  state  worship 
at  Athens  mysticism  was  reduced  to  a  minimum ;  in  other  words, 
the  gods  were  conceived  as  definite  beings,  whose  relations  to  man 
were  as  personal  as  the  relations  of  one  man  to  another. 

Further,  it  is  clear  that  there  was  no  worship  of  evil  beings. 
When  evil  came  from  the  gods,  it  was  because  they  were  angry, 
doubtless  justly  angry.  When  it  did  not  come  from  the  gods,  it 
might  be  referred  to  evil  spirits,  but  these  spirits  were  to  be  ban- 
ished, not  to  be  worshipped.  In  later  Greek  practice  such  rites 
were  not  yet  extinct ;  they  have,  however,  so  little  of  religion 
about  them,  they  are  so  definitely  magic  and  not  worship,  that 
they  hardly  require  our  consideration.  Ordinarily  evil  is  to  be 
attributed  to  an  angry  god.  The  ritual  for  dealing  with  such  a 
situation  —  the  rites  of  purification,  propitiatory  sacrifice,  etc.1  — 
has  special  interest  because  it  was  not  much  subject  to  change 
under  epic  influence.  The  nature  of  these  gods  is  essentially 
capricious.  They  have  special  blessings  to  bestow,  in  particular 
the  blessing  of  rich  crops,  but  if  their  favor  is  forfeited  the  loss 
and  suffering  to  be  expected  are  equally  great.  At  times  this  fickle 
nature  was  attributed  to  one  or  another  of  the  Olympian  gods,  but 
rarely  or  never  to  the  patron  deity  of  the  city.  The  gods  whose 
anger  was  specially  feared  were  not  more  holy  than  the  Olympian 
rulers,  nor  less  accessible  to  man  ;  in  fact  they  stood  in  closer 
touch  with  the  vicissitudes  of  human  life.  The  list  includes  gods 
of  agriculture,  gods  of  the  winds  and  the  sea,  and  gods  like  the 
Eumenides  or  the  local  heroes,  who  have  some  kinship  with  the 
souls  of  the  dead.  Such  gods  shared  no  festal  banquet  with  their 
worshippers ;  they  received  animal  sacrifice  either  because  they 
were  fond  of  blood  (the  dead  longed  for  this  principle  of  life)  or 
i  See  Chap,  ii,  p.  105  f. 


THE   GREEK  GODS  147 

because  they  liked  the  gift ;  then  the  animal  was  wholly  consumed. 
Belief  in  gods  of  this  type  was  as  persistent  as  the  suffering  or 
calamity  which  their  worship  might  alleviate. 

The  normal  type  of  state  worship  with  its  processions  and  prayer 
hymns,  its  votive  gifts  and  festal  sacrifices,1  was  associated  with 
the  belief  in  gods  not  unlike  human  rulers,  who  were  bound  to 
their  worshippers  by  the  ties  of  social  relationship.  The  grounds 
on  which  the  worshipper  based  his  hope  that  his  prayer  would  be 
answered  were  mentioned  in  the  discussion  of  prayer :  former 
worship  of  the  god  and  former  favors  received  from  the  god,  both 
of  which  are  tokens  of  the  personal  relation  existing  between  the 
god  and  the  worshipper ;  the  greatness  of  man's  need,  and  the 
god's  pity ;  the  justice  of  the  request.  In  Homer  there  are  many 
references  to  the  reciprocal  relations  between  the  god  and  the 
worshipper.  The  same  note  is  found  later  in  the  community  wor- 
ship, that  is,  the  gods  enter  into  personal  relations  with  a  state  or 
community  ;  they  find  pleasure  in  the  homage  of  their  worshippers 
and  gladly  grant  these  men  their  favor  and  protection.  It  is  true 
that  Homer  has  much  to  say  of  the  gods'  fondness  for  banquets 
and  their  delight  in  the  fragrance  of  sacrifice.  But  while  this 
pleasure  of  appetite  on  the  part  of  the  gods  was  never  entirely 
forgotten  by  the  worshipper,  it  would  seem  that  the  desire  for 
man's  homage  was  what  made  worship  most  acceptable.  The 
pleasure  of  the  gods  in  worship  was  thus  like  the  keenest  pleasure 
of  the  human  ruler,  the  pleasure  in  having  his  power  fully  recog- 
nized and  honored. 

The  personal  relation  implied  in  worship  determines  the  char- 
acter of  every  religion,  and  thereby  the  character  of  its  gods. 
The  fear  of  angry  or  capricious  gods  is  almost  wholly  omitted  from 
the  epic,  and  finds  a  relatively  small  place  in  the  later  worship  of 
the  state.  The  oriental  attitude  of  abject  servitude  is  as  absent 
from  Greek  religion  as  from  Greek  society.  The  Greek  sacrifice 
with  the  communion  meal  keeps,  though  somewhat  vaguely,  the 
idea  of  gods  who  cement  social  bonds  of  friendship  by  feasting 
1  See  Chap,  ii,  $§  5-6  ;  p.  90  t 


i48  GREEK   RELIGION 

with  their  worshippers.  On  such  gods  the  family  or  the  state 
may  depend  to  care  for  them,  so  long  as  they  keep  up  the  wor- 
ship in  due  form.  These  gods  are  not  too  far  off,  or  too  holy,  or 
too  selfish  to  watch  over  the  community  which  worships  them. 
They  are  not  far  enough  off  or  holy  enough  to  make  religion  so 
potent  a  factor  as  it  might  be  in  Greek  life.  In  a  word,  the  ordi- 
nary worship  of  the  state  presupposes  gods  to  have  the  power  and 
the  wish  to  prosper  the  state  because  they  are  gratified  by  its 
homage,  gods  who  stand  for  human  ideals  that  are  high  but  by  no 
means  absolute. 

The  later  tendency  was  strong  toward  the  epic  conception  of 
the  gods  as  divine  rulers  with  power  to  grant  particular  blessings. 
When  this  conception  was  emphasized  and  defined  by  a  great 
temple  statue,  like  the  gold  and  ivory  statue  of  Zeus  at  Olympia, 
its  hold  on  religious  belief  was  assured.  The  Greek  gods  lost  all 
that  was  vague  in  their  nature.  They  lent  themselves  to  the  pur- 
poses of  art  and  poetry,  because  even  in  worship  they  were  beings 
as  clear-cut  and  definite  as  the  men  who  paid  them  homage. 

3.  Zeus,  Hera,  Athena,  Apollo,  Artemis.  —  For  practical  pur- 
poses it  is  convenient  to  treat  the  Olympian  gods  in  three  groups : 
(i)  the  five  greater  gods,  (2)  the  gods  associated  with  some 
phase  of  nature,  and  (3)  the  gods  who  stand  for  human  emotions 
and  activities.1  The  five  gods  treated  in  the  present  section  are 
so  varied  in  their  functions  and  at  the  same  time  so  important  that 
they  may  best  be  treated  together  as  the  greater  Olympian  gods. 

(a)  Zeus.  The  important  seats  of  Zeus  worship,  Olympia  ex- 
cepted,  were  on  mountain  tops,  as  though  men  would  get  as  near 
as  they  could  to  the  sky  which  was  the  home  of  Zeus.  The 
mariner  prayed  to  the  god  of  the  weather  for  a  prosperous  voyage  ; 
the  thunderbolt  was  his  sign  to  deter  or  to  encourage ;  when 

1  Preller-Rohert,  Griech.  Mythologie,  discusses  the  gods  of  worship  as  well  as 
the  gods  of  myth;  references  to  the  Greek  and  Latin  sources  are  given  quite  fully 
in  the  notes  of  that  book  so  that  it  is  unnecessary  to  repeat  them  here.  See  also 
the  chapters  on  worship  in  Farnell,  Cults  of  the  Greek  States,  and  the  references 
there  given.  A  list  of  the  more  important  festivals  at  Athens  is  given  in  Ap- 
pendix II. 


THE  GREEK  GODS  149 

Zeus  sent  rain,  the  Athenian  assembly  adjourned ;  the  god  of  the 
sky  was  one  of  the  special  gods  of  agriculture.  One  of  the  most 
interesting  cults  of  Zeus  was  on  Mt.  Lycaeus ;  in  this  shrine  of  the 
god  of  light  it  was  believed  that  nothing  cast  a  shadow,  nor  could 
any  man  enter  the  presence  of  the  god  and  live.  When  the  crops 
were  parched,  the  priests  of  Zeus  stirred  a  sacred  spring  on  the 
mountain  top  with  an  oak  bough  till  a 
mist  arose,  the  mist  spread  into  a  cloud, 
and  from  the  cloud  fell  the  needed  rain. 
On  the  acropolis  of  Athens,  Zeus  Polieus 
was  worshipped  with  cakes  and  wineless 
libations ;  in  the  summer  rites  of  purifi- 
cation were  performed  that  he  might  send 
rain.  Zeus  Maimaktes  was  worshipped 

in  the  early  winter,  and  Zeus  'Meilichios   _ 

FIG.  41. —  COIN   OF   ELIS 
at  the  Diasia  in  the  early  spring  to  pro-  (Hadrian) 

tect   the   fields   from    dangerous  storms.        The  Zeus  of  Pheidias. 
The  festival  of  the   Diasia  was  peculiar 

in  that  individuals  brought  only  burnt  offerings  to  appease  the 
god  of  storms ;  he  who  could  not  afford  an  animal  brought  a 
cake  in  the  form  of  a  pig  or  a  sheep.  The  legend  of  the  birth 
of  Zeus  in  Crete  was  based  on  the  worship  there  by  which  the  life 
of  vegetation  was  evoked  in  the  spring.  His  mother  Rhea  was 
"mother-earth " ;  his  father  was  no  doubt  the  stormy  heavens ; 
the  din  made  by  the  Couretes  to  drown  the  cries  of  the  infant 
god  was  suggested  by  the  orgiastic  worship  of  the  priests.  The 
many  myths  of  Zeus's  amours  had  historic  basis  in  the  fact  that 
the  heaven  god  was  worshipped  with  one  wife  in  one  place,  with 
another  in  another  place  ;  these  gods  became  one  Zeus  with 
many  wives.  As  the  "  father  of  men  and  gods,"  Zeus  became 
the  god  of  the  family  and  of  all  social  institutions.  The  stranger 
and  the  suppliant  were  under  his  protection,  for  there  was  no 
god  greater  or  more  universal  to  whom  they  could  appeal.  Just 
because  he  was  so  universal,  his  special  cults  were  often  less  im- 
portant than  those  of  other  divinities. 


GREEK  RELIGION 


(&}  Hera  is  the  wife  and  queen  among  the  gods.  She,  too,  was 
worshipped  on  mountain  tops  and  the  phenomena  of  the  heavens 
were  sometimes  referred  to  her.  Men  worshipped  her,  e.g.  at  the 
Argive  Heraeum  and  in  Elis,  with  games  of  war,  a  side  of  her 

nature  which  found  expression  in  the 
myth  that  she  was  the  mother  of 
Ares.  As  goddess  of  marriage  she 
was  worshipped  by  women  with  imi- 
tative rites.  At  Argos  once  a  year 
her  image  was  decked  as  a  bride  with 
wreaths  and  garlands,  the  bridal  bed 
was  woven  of  osier  twigs,  and  the 
whole  ceremony  of  marriage  per- 
formed. At  Athens  the  bride's 
parents  sacrificed  to  Hera  Teleia 
for  blessing  on  their  daughter's  mar- 
riage. The  island  of  Samos  was  the 
most  important  centre  of  the  worship 
of  Hera. 

(c]  Athena.  As  might  be  expected 
from  the  position  she  occupies  in  the 
Iliad,  Athena  was  worshipped  all 
through  northern  Greece  as  the  god- 
dess of  war.  The  most  widespread 
cult  was  that  of  Athena  Itonia,  which 
centred  in  Thessaly.  At  Athens 
this  aspect  of  the  goddess  appears  not  only  in  the  worship  of 
Athena  Iton.ia,  but  in  the  characteristic  Athenian  cult  of  Athena 
Nike  whose  worship  formed  a  part  of  the  Panathenaea.  The 
war-dance  (pyrrich)  at  the  Panathenaea  indicated  that  Athena 
Polias,  goddess  of  the  city,  was  also  a  goddess  of  war.  Why 
Athena  was  "Triton-born"  (water-born)  and  was  worshipped  in 
many  parts  of  Greece  as  the  goddess  of  rivers  and  springs,  it  is 
not  easy  to  explain.  Possibly  the  local  worship  of  a  Larisaia,  a 
Nedousia,  and  other  river  goddesses  was  merged  with  the  worship 


FIG.  42.  —  HERA  LUDOVISI 
(Terme  Museum,  Rome) 


THE   GREEK   GODS 


of  the  daughter  of  Zeus,  because  the  most  important  local  goddess 
was  felt  to  be  identical  with  the  most  important  goddess  of  the 
Greeks  generally.  The  goddess  born 
from  the  brain  of  Zeus  was  worshipped 
with  Hephaestus  as  the  patron  of  the  handi- 
crafts :  under  the  name  Athena  Ergane 
she  granted  women  skill  in  weaving  and 
embroidery ;  the  art  of  healing  also  be- 
longed to  Athena  as  Hygieia  and  Paionia. 
The  olive  was  her  best  gift  to  the  Athenian 
people  and  other  forms  of  agriculture 
awaited  her  blessing ;  her  servants  gave 
the  signal  for  sowing  the  grain  by  ritual 
ploughings  at  the  foot  of  the  Acropolis. 
At  the  Panathenaic  festival  (cp.  p.  114) 
she  appeared  as  the  patron  of  Athens,  of 
its  glory  in  war,  its  technical  skill  in  manu- 
facture, and  its  political  wisdom ;  for  in 

the  Athena  of  the  city, 

Athena  Polias,  all  these 

different  aspects  of  her 

being  were  united. 

((f)  Apollo   was  wor- 
shipped at  Athens  mainly 

as  the  protector  of  the 
FIG.  44.  —  COIN  OF  crops.     At  the  Thargelia  in  May  the  first  fruits 

were  offered  to  him,  musical  contests  were  held 
Apollo  is  represented  m  his  honor,  and  the  city  was  purified  with 

in  the  act  of  shoot-  .   ,      .  ,          .     J     ., 

ing    the    Python;   sPecial  ntes  m   order  that   the    npenmg   corn 
the  Delphic  tripod   might  not  suffer  from  his  anger.     The  Smin- 
stands  in  front  of  thian  Apollo  in  Asia  Minor  (Iliad,  i.  39)  kept 
the    mice    from    the   grain,    Apollo    Parnopios 
kept  off  the  locusts.     In  the  Peloponnesus  and 
more  especially  in  Thessaly  shepherds  looked  to  him  to  protect 
and  prosper  their  flocks.     Apollo,    the   perfect   embodiment  of 


FIG.  43.  — BRONZE  STAT- 
UETTE OF  "ATHENA 
PROMACHOS  "  (Boston) 


the    omphalos 
the  centre. 


152  GREEK   RELIGION 

youth,  was  worshipped  by  boys  as  they  arrived  at  maturity ;  gym- 
nasiums, like  the  Lykeion  (Lyceum)  at  Athens,  were  situated  in 
his  sacred  precincts.  The  best-known  form  of  Apollo  was  the 
god  of  Delphi,  patron  of  prophecy,  music,  and  the  healing  art. 
In  the  Pythian  games  alone  athletic  contests  were  second  to 
contests  in  singing  and  playing  and  rhythmic  dancing. 

(<?)  Artemis  is  in  many  ways  the  feminine  counterpart  of  her 
brother  Apollo.  Maidens  offered  to  her  before  marriage  their 
girlhood  dress  and  toys,  for  she  was  the  ideal  of  chaste  maiden- 
hood. Mothers  also  looked  to  her  for  protection  in  childbirth. 
In  strange  contrast  with  the  goddess  who  was  sister  of  Apollo, 
Artemis  was  worshipped  both  in  Greece  and  in  Asia  Minor  as 
the  embodiment  of  the  untamed  life  of  the  forest.  To  Artemis 
alone  of  the  gods  wild  beasts  were  sometimes  sacrificed  instead  of 
cows  or  sheep.  Hunters  sought  her  blessing,  for  the  beasts  of  the 
chase  were  thought  to  be  under  her  protection  and  she  herself 
claimed  preeminence  as  a  huntress.  Oftentimes  Hecate,  goddess 
of  magic  arts,  was  identified  with  Artemis.  Images  of  Hecate, 
now  carrying  a  torch,  now  in  triple  form,  were  set  up  by  gates 
and  doors.  Her  special  worship  was  carried  on  at  night  with 
secret  ritual ;  food  was  set  out  for  her  at  the  cross  roads,  often  to 
be  eaten  by  passing  beggars.  This  night  worship  may  have  made 
it  easy  to  identify  Artemis  with  the  moon  as  Apollo  was  at  length 
identified  with  the  sun. 

4.  Gods  associated  with  the  Earth,  the  Waters,  and  the 
Heavens. — (a)  Though  the  earth  (Ge  or  Gaia)  was  the  mother 
of  the  whole  family  of  the  gods  in  myth,  she  was  rarely  worshipped. 
At  Athens  men  sacrificed  to  her  as  the  abode  of  the  dead,  at 
Delphi  and  Olympia  the  earth  was  honored  because  gases  from  it 
were  a  source  of  inspiration.  But  generally  the  mother-goddess 
had  grown  away  from  this  direct  connection  with  the  earth ;  it 
was  all  but  forgotten  in  the  case  of  the  grain  goddess  Demeter, 
and  received  little  emphasis  in  the  case  of  Rhea  and  of  Cybele. 
But  though  the  connection  with  the  earth  is  not  clear  for  the  other 
wives  of  the  heaven-god,  no  one  can  doubt  that  the  mother  of 


THE   GREEK   GODS  153 

vegetation,  Rhea  in  Crete,  Cybele  in  Asia  Minor,  was  originally 
the  earth-mother.  The  worship  of  Cybele  has  many  points  of 
interest.  In  the  fertile  plains  of  Asia  Minor  she  took  the  place  of 
Demeter  as  goddess  of  the  grain  ;  the  great  goddess  of  the  coun- 
try, she  was  worshipped  as  the  protecting  spirit  of  cities ;  but  her 
proper  home  was  in  the  mountain  forests.  All  the  wildness  of  the 
region  was  introduced  into  her  orgiastic  worship.  On  Mount 
Dindymon  was  the  holy  shrine  of  the  mother  who  brought  forth 
vegetable  life  in  the  spring  and  mourned  its  loss  in  the  fall ;  here 
too  was  the  grave  of  Attis,  beloved  of  Cybele,  whose  death  was 
one  type  of  the  tragedy  of  winter.  Firs  wreathed  with  violets  were 
the  cult  symbols  of  Attis.  The  worship  consisted  in  sharing  the 
gladness  of  spring  and  love,  the  gloom  of  the  dying  life  of  the 
world.  Corybantes  and  "  Metagyrtes  "  stirred  the  worshippers 
with  flute  and  cymbals  and  wild  cries  to  a  high  pitch  of  frenzy, 
till  they  felt  themselves  one  with  the  great 
mother-earth  in  her  experiences  of  joy  and 
of  sorrow.1 

(&)  The  spirits  of  rivers  and  springs 
found  no  place  among  the  Olympian  gods 
except  in  the  rare  instances  where  they 
were  identified  with  one  of  these  gods. 
The  importance  of  the  rivers  in  local  wor- 
ship was  often  considerable.  The  Asopus  FIG.  45.— COINOFGELA 
in  Boeotia,  the  Achelous  in  Aetolia,  the  (about  485  B.C.) 
Spercheius  in  Thessaly,2  the  Alpheius  in  A  river-god  is  represented 
Elis  were  gods  of  fertility  in  the  soil,  of  ^  a  human-headed 
growth  in  man  and  animals,  and  in  some 
instances  of  healing.  The  spirits  of  springs  were  nymphs  bless- 
ing the  region  with  fertility.  Water  from  certain  springs  was 
important  for  purification ;  before  marriage  both  bride  and 
groom  bathed  in  water  fetched  from  a  sacred  spring,  in  Athens 
the  spring  Callirhoe,  for  by  such  purification  the  favor  of  the  gods 
was  secured  and  children  might  be  expected.  The  account  of  the 

1  Cp.  Frazer,  Adonis,  Attis,  and  Osiris.  2Cp.  Iliad,  16.  174;  23.  142. 


'54 


GREEK  RELIGION 


shrine  of  the  nymphs  at  Ithaca  (Odyssey,  13.  349  f.)  illustrates  the 
simple  worship  of  this  beautiful  embodiment  of  nature  life. 

(c)  Poseidon  alone  among  the  sea  gods  was  one  of  the 
Olympian  council.  Glaucus  (the  shimmering  sea)  was  wor- 
shipped on  the  straits  of  Euboea,  Palaemon  at  Corinth,  Ino- 
Leucothea  at  Megara,  but  their  cults  were  limited  to  a  few  spots. 
Poseidon,  on  the  other  hand,  was  the 
brother  of  Zeus  himself.  In  his  ancient 
shrines  on  the  south  coast  of  the  Corinth- 
ian gulf,  as  in  the  epic  story,  he  was  the 
god  of  shipping,  of  fishing,  and  of  trade 
by  sea.  At  Mycale  in  Asia  Minor  his 
worship  was  the  political  centre  of  a  group 
of  Ionian  cities ;  the  great  games  at  the 
FIG.  46.  —  COIN  OK  SELI-  Isthmus,  that  centre  of  trade  and  ship- 
NUS  (about  46o  B.C.)  ping>  were  ceiebrated  at  his  shrine  ;  the 
The  river-god  Seiinus  is  island  ofCalauria  was  the  centre  of  worship 

pouring   a   libation;    be-    f  .,       ,.  r  . 

fore  the  altar  stands  a  for  a  considerable  group  of  cities,  mclud- 
cock;  behind  the  god  is  ing  Athens.  His  favorite  sacrifice  was  a 
a  seiinon  leaf  above  the  bull,  often  a  black  bull,  for  his  nature  was 
statue  of  a  bull.  .  ,  ,  .,  ..  ,  .  ,-, 

violent  and  easily  stirred  to  anger.  Posei- 
don was  also  the  "  father  of  waters"  away  from  the  sea ;  especially 
in  the  Peloponnesus  he  was  honored  as  the  god  of  fertility  of  the 
soil.  The  shepherds  prayed  to  him  to  bless  their  flocks,  but  the 
rearing  of  horses  was  his  special  care.  At  Mantinea  in  Arcadia, 
at  Athens,  particularly  in  Thessaly,  he  was  worshipped  as  the  patron 
of  horse-raising,  of  skill  in  horsemanship,  and  of  cavalry  as  used 
in  war. 

((f)  The  heavenly  bodies  were  not  generally  worshipped  in 
Greece.  On  the  island  of  Rhodes,  however,  the  sun,  Helios,  was 
the  chief  deity ;  horses  were  sacrificed  to  him  by  being  plunged 
into  the  sea,  and  the  Halieia  was  a  splendid  festival  in  his  honor. 
At  Corinth  and  at  various  points  in  the  Peloponnesus  he  was 
an  important  god  who  watched  over  flocks.  The  maintenance 
of  holy  flocks  and  herds  tended  by  priests  was  a  part  of  his  wor- 


THE   GREEK  GODS  155 

ship.  The  moon  determined  the  seasons  of  worship  but  was 
not  herself  worshipped.  Nor  were  the  stars  worshipped.  The 
dog-days,  however,  marked  by  the  early  rising  of  Sirius,  who  was 
known  as  the  dog  of  the  hunter  Orion  (Iliad,  22.  29),  were  the 
season  of  peculiar  rites.  To  ward  off  the  evil  effects  of  the 
dog-day  heat  sacrifices  were  offered  to  Aristaeus,  a  god  of  shep- 
herds, wine  culture,  and  bee  culture  in  northern  Greece.  The 
Linus  song  (Iliad,  18.  57of.)  is  a  ritual  of  this  same  season, 
which  seems  to  have  been  introduced  into  Greece  through  Asia 
Minor  from  a  Semitic  source  (a*\ivov  =  ai  lenu,  "woe  to  us"). 
At  Argos  Linus  was  worshipped  as  the  son  of  Apollo  and  the 
nymph  Psamathe  ("sand-spring");  according  to  the  story  this  child 
was  exposed  and  grew  up  with  the  lambs  of  the  flock,  till  the  dogs 
tore  him  in  pieces.  At  his  tomb  in  Argos  each  summer  women 
and  children  performed  a  ritual  of  mourning  and  supplication. 
The  festival  was  called  Arneides  ("  Lamb-days  ")  and  on  one  day 
(Kynophontis,  "dog-killing")  all  dogs  found  on  the  streets  were 
put  to  death.  The  purpose  of  this  worship  was  to  ward  off  the 
evil  effects  of  the  dog-days  from  men  and  flocks.  Similar  rites 
of  mourning  combined  with  the  use  of  the  Linus  song  were  to  be 
found  in  other  parts  of  Greece. 

(<?)  The  winds,  source  of  heat  or  of  rain,  source  of  storms  on 
the  sea,  were  not  generally  worshipped,  on  the  ground  that  they 
were  subject  to  the  greater  gods.  Sometimes  magic  rites  (ciruSui) 
were  used  to  ward  off  their  evil  effects.  Boreas,  the  wild  north 
wind,  had  an  altar  at  Athens  and  in  a  few  other  cities.  Asses 
were  offered  to  the  winds  at  Tarentum,  horses  on  Mt.  Taygetus, 
libations  without  wine  at  Athens ;  even  human  sacrifice  is  said  to 
have  been  performed  in  their  worship.  These  were  propitiatory 
sacrifices  to  check  the  violence  of  the  winds.  It  was  Athena,  or 
Poseidon,  or  Zeus  who  sent  fair  winds  to  bring  the  sailor  on  his  way. 

5.  Gods  of  Human  Activities  and  Emotions.  —  The  gods 
discussed  in  this  section  include  those  who  preside  over  agricul- 
ture and  flocks,  gods  of  trade  and  manufacture,  the  goddess  of  love, 
and  the  god  of  war. 


156  GREEK   RELIGION 

(<z)  Demeter  was  no  doubt  originally  the  "  mother-earth,"  but 
in  worship  she  has  become  primarily  a  goddess  of  the  grain.  In 
the  rich  valleys  of  the  Peloponnese,  in  Crete  and  Asia  Minor,  in 
Sicily,  her  worship  was  widespread,  although  Eleusis  in  Attica 
claimed  to  be  the  centre  from  which  agriculture  and  the  cult  of 
Demeter  were  given  to  the  world.  A  sacred  ploughing  at  Eleusis 
corresponded  to  the  ploughing  below  the  Athenian  acropolis  as 
a  signal  for  the  farmer  to  begin  the  preparation  of  his  ground. 
Demeter  Chloe  ("  green  "),  who  was  worshipped  on  the  slope  of 
the  Acropolis,  cared  for  the  fresh  green  of  the  sprouting  grain  ; 
Demeter  Erisybe  kept  off  the  mil.lew,  Demeter  Olympia  guarded 
it  from  drought ;  harvest  festivals  (e.g.  the  Thalysia  of  Cos,  the 
Haloia  of  Eleusis)  were  celebrated  in  honor  of  the  goddess ; 
Demeter  Himalis  was  worshipped  by  millers,  and  Demeter 
Megalomazos  by  bakers.  The  most  widespread  festival  of 
Demeter  was  the  Thesmophoria,  in  the  first  instance  a  festival  of 
seed-sowing,  the  ritual  of  which  was  intended  to  secure  good  crops 
to  farmers  and  children  to  the  family.  It  was  Demeter  Thesmo- 
phoros,  the  goddess  of  sowing,  who  taught  men  the  principles  of 
family  life  and  agricultural  life.  At  Athens  only  married  women  of 
citizen  descent  and  blameless  life  could  share  the  festival,  and  that 
after  a  nine  days'  fast.  On  the  next  to  the  last  day  of  the  festival, 
called  the  "Fast-day,"  living  pigs  were  left  to  die  in  underground 
chambers ;  the  half-decayed  flesh  was  later  removed,  and  supersti- 
tious people  mingled  fragments  of  it  with  the  seed  they  sowed.  On 
the  last  day,  Kalligeneia  ("  Fair  offspring  "),  dances  and  contests  were 
followed  by  a  rich  banquet  which  the  wealthier  women  furnished. 

In  the  Eleusinian  worship  (see  p.  128  f.),  Demeter  and  Per- 
sephone were  goddesses  of  souls  as  well  as  goddesses  of  the  grain. 
At  the  time  when  seed  was  sown  Persephone  departed  to  her 
husband  in  the  lower  world  ;  when  the  grain  sprouted  she  returned 
to  her  mother.  At  Megara  and  at  many  points  in  the  Peloponnese 
(for  example  at  Hermione)  the  mother  and  daughter  were  pri- 
marily goddesses  of  souls,  worshipped  at  points  where  some  cavern 
seemed  to  furnish  an  entrance  to  the  lower  world. 


THE   GREEK  GODS 


157 


(b)  Dionysus.  —  In  Attica  and  on  many  of  the  fertile  Aegean 
islands  Dionysus  was  worshipped  as  the  god  of  wine.  In  Decem- 
ber at  the  "  country  Dionysia  "  of  Attica  he  was  worshipped  with 
dance  and  song  and  rustic  jollity ;  the  emblem  of  fertility  was  car- 
ried about  in  processions ;  and  dolls  or  masks  were  hung  on  the 
This  last  custom  was  explained  by  the  myth  of  Erigone, 


trees. 


who  hung  herself  in  grief  for  her  father l  at  the  time  when  wine 


FIG.  47.  —  ATHENIAN  RED-FIGURED  VASE  PAINTING  (St.  Petersburg) 

Apollo  and  Dionysus  stand  with  clasped  hands  above  the  Delphic  omphalus; 
on  either  side  are  Bacchantes  and  Satyrs. 

was  first  introduced  into  the  country.  An  inflated  wine  skin  cov- 
ered with  grease  played  a  large  part  in  the  amusements  at  this 
festival.  The  Lenaea  were  celebrated  at  the  time  of  the  winter 
solstice  with  sacrifices  and  later  with  dramatic  representations. 
The  city  Dionysia  came  in  March.  An  old  cult  image  had  been 
brought  from  Eleutherae  to  Athens ;  each  year  this  was  taken  to 
the  Academy  the  night  before  the  feast  and  then  escorted  to  its 
temple  in  the  city  the  next  day  with  a  great  procession.  Sacri- 
fices, choral  dances,  and  finally  the  representation  of  new  tragedies 
and  comedies,  made  this  the  most  magnificent  festival  of  the 
1  See  p.  243,  infra,  Part  II,  Chap.  iii. 


GREEK   RELIGION 


Athenian  calendar.  Meantime  the  Anthesteria  (flower  festival) 
had  been  celebrated  in  February.  On  the  first  day,  called  "  Cask- 
opening  "  (TnOoiyia)  the  new  wine  was  opened  and  shared  by  mas- 
ters and  slaves  together.  At  the 
public  banquet  on  the  next  day 
(named  "  Pitchers,"  x^s)  there  was 
a  contest  in  drinking  wine  with  a 
prize  for  the  man  who  first  emptied 
his  pitcher.  Every  one  wore 
crowns  of  flowers  which  afterwards 
were  dedicated  in  the  temple  of 
Dionysus.  At  this  time  Persephone 
was  supposed  to  return  from  the 
underworld  and  her  husband 
(Hades)  with  the  return  of  vege- 
tation. Further,  the  wife  of  the 
king  archon  was  formally  married 
to  the  image  of  Dionysus,  as  a  token 
of  the  bond  uniting  this  god  to 
the  Attic  state,  while  the  people 
dressed  as  followers  of  Dionysus  in- 
dulged in  wild  gayety.  On  the 
third  day  ("Pots,"  x^F")  Pots 
filled  with  cooked  fruits  were 
brought  to  Hermes,  conductor  of 
souls.  Meantime  the  temples  of 
other  gods  than  Dionysus  had  been 
closed,  for  the  souls  of  the  dead 
were  free  to  walk  the  earth  on 
these  "unclean"  days.  The  feast 
of"  all-souls  "  ended  with  the  cry  "Away,  ye  souls,  the  Anthesteria 
is  past ;  "  then  men  might  safely  take  up  their  ordinary  tasks 
once  more.  In  this  festival  Dionysus  was  the  god  of  souls,  the 
wine  god  who  showed  men  that  souls  were  of  the  same  substance 
as  the  god  by  filling  them  with  Bacchic  inspiration ;  and  he  was 


FIG.    48.  —  ATHENIAN     WHITE 
LKKYTHOS  (Jena) 

Hermes  with  his  wand  stands  be- 
fore a  pithos  from  which  issue 
small  winged  "  souls." 


THE   GREEK  GODS  159 

the  god  of  returning  vegetation  as  well  as  the  god  of  the  wine. 
The  orgiastic  worship  of  the  god  of  vegetable  life  was  found  in 
many  parts  of  Greece.  It  centered  at  Delphi,  where  the  summer 
belonged  to  Apollo,  the  winter  to  Dionysus.  At  Delphi  men  told 
of  the  "  sufferings  "  of  this  god  of  plant  life  ;  they  showed  his  grave 
in  the  shrine  of  Apollo  ;  after  the  winter  solstice  women  from  all 
about,  even  from  Athens,  clothed  themselves  as  Maenads  and 
braved  the  dangers  of  snow-clad  Parnassus  to  waken  the  divine 
babe  with  their  wild  cries.  Though  this  worship  was  probably 
introduced  into  Greece  at  no  early  date,  it  became  from  one 
standpoint  the  very  centre  of  Greek  religion. 

(f)  Hermes,  even  more  than  Apollo,  was  the  god  of  flocks  and 
herds,  himself  a  shepherd  in  dress  and  manners.  His  worship  was 
especially  prominent  in  the  land  of  his  birth,  Arcadia,  and  in  Thrace. 
In  Athens  the  fourth  of  every  month  was  observed  as  his  birthday. 
It  was  the  god  of  flocks  who  once  saved  Tanagra  from  pestilence 
by  carrying  a  ram  all  around  the  walls  and  then  sacrificing  it,  a 
rite  of  purification  which  was  imitated  in  worship  each  year. 
In  general  it  was  Hermes  who  prospered  the  flocks  and  cared  for 
the  young.  The  cairns  erected  by  wandering  shepherds  came  to 
represent  their  god.  Often  the  landmark  was  a  square  pillar,  in 
later  days  surmounted  by  a  head  or  mask  of  Hermes,  a  "  herm  " 
as  it  was  called  from  the  name  of  the  god.  The  god  who  pro- 
tected roads  was  worshipped  as  the  protector  of  heralds  and  the 
chief  of  their  guilds;  he  was  also  the  god  of  trade  and  gain,  wor- 
shipped as  Hermes  Agoraios  in  the  market-place  ;  and  he  was 
the  guide  of  souls  on  their  last  journey,  worshipped  (e.g.  at  Argos) 
on  the  third  day  after  death,  honored  at  Eleusis,  the  god  by  whose 
aid  souls  were  evoked.  Like  Apollo,  Hermes  was  a  god  of  perfect 
youth,  honored  as  Hermes  Agonios  in  gymnasiums.  The  Hermaia 
at  Athens  consisted  mainly  of  athletic  contests  by  youths  and  boys. 

Pan,  the  son  of  Hermes,  was  another  Arcadian  god  of  shepherds 
and  goatherds.  With  his  goat's  legs  and  beard  he  was  the  very 
spirit  of  that  wild  life  of  the  goatherd  and  his  goats.  He  too 
loved  rocky  peaks  and  wooded  dells,  springs  and  nymphs  of 


i6o 


GREEK  RELIGION 


springs,  the  dances  and  music  of  the  goatherd.  Caves,  moun- 
tain tops,  and  high  oaks  were  sacred  to  Pan ;  music  and  choral 
dance  belonged  to  his  worship  ;  torch  festivals  also  were  held  in  his 
honor.  After  the  "  panic  "  terror,  by  which  Pan  helped  the  Athe- 
nians win  the  battles  at  Marathon 
and  Salamis,  he  was  worshipped 
in  a  grotto  near  the  entrance 
to  the  Acropolis.  Such  caves 
and  grottoes  were  commonly  the 
centres  of  his  rustic  worship. 

(</)  Aphrodite.  —  The  ready 
sympathy  with  which  the  Greeks 
adopted  the  worship  of  the  gods 
of  animal  and  vegetable  life  has 
been  seen  in  the  case  of  Rhea- 
Cybele  and  Dionysus.  Aphro- 
dite was  perhaps  of  Semitic 
origin,  the  oriental  goddess  of 
creative  life  in  plants  and  ani- 
mals. From  Cyprus  and  Asia 

Minor  her  worship  was  carried 
FIG.    49.  —  HANDLE    OF    A    GREEK 

BRONZF.  MIRROR  (Fourth  Century    to  the  Aegean  islands  and  nor- 
B.C..  Boston)  them  Greece  ;  from  Cythera  it 

Aphrodite  with  an  Eros  on  each       worked  northward    through   the 

Peloponnese    to    Corinth.      At 

Paphos  in  Cyprus  (icpoKrjiria)  as  at  Athens  her  fane  was  sur- 
rounded by  gardens  which  were  filled  with  springing  life  when 
she  was  worshipped.1  One  form  of  her  worship  at  Athens  consisted 
in  planting  seeds  in  potsherds  with  a  little  earth ;  the  plants 
sprouted  quickly,  quickly  faded,  and  then  were  thrown  into  water. 
These  so-called  "  gardens  of  Adonis "  symbolized  the  beautiful 
youth  who  was  born  each  spring  for  Aphrodite  to  love,  and  was 
killed  a  little  later  by  the  summer's  heat.2  Theocritus  {Idyl,  15) 

1  Strabo,  14,  p.  683  ;  Pausanias,  i.  19.  2. 

2  Theophrastus,  Hist,  plant.  6.  7.  3;  Hesychius,  s.v.'AS&viSos  Krjirot. 


THE   GREEK  GODS  161 

describes  a  scene  from  the  mourning  for  Adonis  at  Alexandria, 
another  of  those  festivals  in  which  men  were  united  with  a  god- 
dess by  sharing  her  deepest  emotions  of  love  and  grief.  At 
Corinth  as  in  Semitic  countries  licentious  rites  were  prominent  in 
Aphrodite's  worship.  More  commonly  in  Greece  she  was  honored 
as  the  goddess  of  human  love,  of  marriage  and  the  family.  The 
apple  placed  in  the  hand  of  her  statues  symbolized  human  love ; 
Pheidias  represented  her  with  her  foot  on  a  tortoise,  which  symbol- 
ized the  retired  life  of  the  woman  in  the  home.  Aphrodite  Hera 
was  the  goddess  of  marriage  at  Sparta ;  in  Attica  Aphrodite  Kolias 
presided  over  childbirth ;  to  Aphrodite  women  prayed  for  all 
feminine  charms.  In  Paphos  no  blood  stained  her  altars  and  at 
Athens  no  wine  was  mixed  in  her  libations.  Greek  shipping 
entirely  ceased  in  winter  to  begin  again  in  the  spring.  So  sailors 
worshipped  Aphrodite  the  goddess  of  spring  as  the  power  which 
quieted  the  winter  storms.  In  this  aspect  she  was  often  known  as 
Aphrodite  Aineias,  and  her  temples  stood  at  many  points  where 
later  legend  made  the  hero  Aeneas  stop  on  his  way  to  Italy. 
Finally,  Aphrodite  was  worshipped  with  Ares  at  Thebes  and 
Athens  and  Argos.  An  Aphrodite  Areia  in  armor  was  also  to  be 
found  at  Corinth  and  at  many  points  in  the  Peloponnese. 

(<?)  Ares.  —  As  Aphrodite  became  essentially  the  goddess  of 
love,  so  Ares  was  the  god  of  war,  embodying  in  his  nature  all  the 
wild  forces  of  the  battlefield.  Thrace  was  the  home  of  the  god 
and  the  centre  of  his  worship  was  among  its  wild  tribes.  At  Athens 
the  court  for  cases  of  murder,  the  Areopagus,  originally  met  on 
the  rocky  "  Mars'  hill  "  before  the  entrance  to  the  Acropolis.  The 
temple  of  Ares  here  was  said  to  be  the  outgrowth  of  the  worship 
established  by  the  Amazons  when  they  besieged  the  Acropolis.  In 
the  Peloponnese  the  cult  of  Ares  was  established  at  many  points ; 
at  Sparta  young  dogs  were  offered  to  him,  and  cases  of  human 
sacrifice  were  reported ;  in  Elis  Ares  Hippios,  god  of  horses, 
was  honored  as  father  of  the  cruel  Oenomaus  who  slew  his  com- 
petitors in  the  chariot  race.  The  patron  god  of  the  state,  however, 
was  worshipped  more  often  than  Ares  to  secure  success  in  war. 

GREEK   RELIGION  —  II 


162 


GREEK   RELIGION 


(/)  Gods  of  Fire.  —  In  the  Homeric  pantheon  the  lame  He- 
phaesius  was  the  god  of  fire  and  the  smith's  art,  with  his  home  on 
the  island  of  Lemnos.  This  volcanic  island  remained  an  impor- 
tant centre  of  the  worship  of  Hephaestus  and  Dionysus.  Each 
year  all  the  fires  on  the  island  were  extinguished,  the  country  was 
purified,  and  fire  was  brought  in  a  sacred  vessel  from  Delos  in 


FIG.  50.  —  ATHENIAN  RED  FIGURED  VASE  PAINTING 
Contestants  in  the  torch  race. 

commemoration  of  the  fact  that  fire  was  a  gift  of  the  gods  to  men.1 
Hephaestus  was  closely  associated  with  Athena  at  Athens,  the 
patron  of  the  smith's  art  with  the  patron  of  woman's  handicraft. 
In  October  the  Chalkeia  was  celebrated  in  honor  of  both  gods ; 
it  was  primarily  a  festival  of  workers  in  metal,  while  at  the  same 
time  the  women  appointed  to  make  the  new  garment  for  Athena 
Polias  began  their  work  with  appropriate  ceremonies.  At  the 
Apatouria  Hephaestus  was  honored  as  a  god  of  the  hearth  fire  and 
the  home  by  means  of  torch-light  processions.  The  Hephaesteia 

l  Philostratus,  Heroica,  19.  14. 


THE   GREEK   GODS  163 

was  also  an  important  festival  at  Athens.  On  this  occasion  as  at 
the  Panathenaea  and  the  Prometheia  the  Athenians  instituted 
a  torch-race  from  the  Academy  to  the  Ceramicus.1  Torches 
fitted  with  shields  to  protect  the  flame  were  carried  by  youths  or 
relays  of  youths,  with  a  prize  to  the  first  one  who  brought  in  his 
torch  burning.  In  the  west  Hephaestus  -was  honored  in  the 
region  of  Aetna  and  of  Vesuvius.  To  one  of  the  islands  near 
Puteoli,  which  was  sacred  to  him,  it  was  customary  for  men  to 
bring  a  piece  of  iron  and  a  gold  coin ;  the  next  day  a  sword,  pre- 
sumably forged  by  the  god,  was  ready  for  them.2 

Prometheus  was  honored  in  Attica  with  Hephaestus  as  the  giver 
of  fire  and  of  that  civilization  which  fire  made  possible.  The  best- 
known  feature  of  his  worship  was  the  torch  race  from  his  temple 
in  the  Academy  to  the  city. 

Hestia,  the  hearth  fire,  was  honored  as  the  goddess  of  the  home 
and  of  family  life.3  Other  cults  might  be  absent,  but  in  every 
household  she  was  honored.  The  community  also  and  the  state 
had  a  common  hearth  as  the  symbol  of  unity.  Officials  of  the 
state  conducted  the  worship  of  Hestia  in  the  Prytaneum  at  Athens, 
and  in  this  home  of  the  state  public  banquets  were  given  to  dis- 
tinguished citizens  and  strangers.  All  Arcadia  had  its  common 
hearth  and  common  worship  of  the  goddess  of  the  hearth  at  Tegea. 
Finally,  at  Olympia  and  at  Delphi  all  the  Greeks  united  in  her  wor- 
ship. At  Delphi  the  holy  fire  of  Hestia  was  the  source  of  fire  for 
many  other  shrines  ;  all  who  came  to  consult  the  oracle  worshipped 
at  her  hearth ;  no  doubt  others  beside  Orestes  came  there  for  puri- 
fication ;  while  those  who  sang  in  honor  of  the  Pythian  god  paid 
special  tribute  to  this  Hestia.  Because  she  was  so  closely  con- 
nected with  the  hearth  fire  Hestia  was  not  a  subject  for  myth,  but 
was  prominent  in  worship. 

(g)    Gods  of  Healing.  —  The  power  to  heal  sickness  was  one  of 

1  Herodotus,  8.  98;  Harpocratium  (from  Polemon),  s.v.  Xa/uTrds. 

2  Callimachus,  Hymn  to  Artemis,  46,  and  schol.;  Apollonius  Rhod.  4.  761,  and 
schol. 

8  Cp.  supra,  p.  120. 


164  GREEK  RELIGION 

the  functions  of  Apollo,  but  more  commonly  it  was  exercised  by 
Asclepius,  Apollo's  son.  The  Asclepiads  of  Tricca  in  Thessaly 
were  mentioned  in  the  epic.  From  this  early  shrine  his  worship 
was  brought  to  Epidaurus,  and  from  there  to  Pergamon  in  the 
east,  to  Rome  and  Cyrene  in  the  west.  Of  the  splendor  of  Epi- 
daurus traces  still  remain  in  the  beautiful  ruins  of  the  theatre,  and 
in  the  foundation  walls  of  temples,  spring  houses,  and  buildings  for 
the  care  of  the  sick.  The  worship  which  was  introduced  into 
Athens  by  the  poet  Sophocles  was  developed  somewhat  rapidly 
because  Asclepius  was  taken  under  the  protection  of  the  Eleusin- 
ian  goddesses  and  of  Dionysus.  On  the  first  day  of  the  greater 
Dionysia  sacrifices  were  offered  to  Asclepius  and  there  was  a  lyric 
contest  in  his  honor.  And  on  one  of  the  earlier  days  of  the  Eleu- 
sinian  mysteries  there  were  large  sacrifices  of  cattle  to  the  god  of 
Epidaurus ;  as  Asclepius  had  been  initiated  into  the  mysteries  at 
this  time,  so  other  newcomers  might  be  initiated  ;  furthermore  the 
presence  of  the  healing  god  was  then  specially  manifest  to  the  sick 
who  slept  at  his  shrine  (in  the  Trawl's).  The  manner  in  which 
his  healing  powers  were  exercised  has  been  described  under  the 
section  on  private  worship  (p.  124). 

The  other  important  god  of  healing  was  Eileithyia,  who  presided 
over  childbirth.  On  the  islan  1  of  Delos,  where  Leto  gave  birth 
to  Apollo  and  Artemis,  Eileithyia  had  a  special  cult.  In  her 
shrine  at  Athens  there  was  an  image  which  had  been  brought 
from  Delos,  with  two  others  that  had  come  from  Crete.  The 
Genetyllides,  attendants  of  Aphrodite  in  her  temple  at  Cape 
Colias,  also  granted  help  to  Athenian  women  in  the  time  of  their 
need.  At  Tegea,  Sparta,  Argos,  etc.,  were  important  shrines  of 
Eileithyia. 

6.  Heroes.  —  The  heroes  are  a  class  of  beings  peculiar  to  Greek 
religion,  greater  than  men,  less  than  gods,  worshipped  by  the  peo- 
ple who  dwelt  near  their  shrines  as  the  source  of  special  blessings. 
The  warriors  of  the  Iliad,  the  princes  of  the  Odyssey,  are  called 
"  heroes  "  ;  and  in  one  locality  or  another  many  of  these  heroes 
were  worshipped  in  later  time.  From  the  Greek  standpoint  a 


THE   GREEK  GODS  165 

hero  is  the  soul  of  some  powerful  man  which  gains  added  power 
after  his  death.  The  people  found  adequate  proof  that  such  was 
the  case  in  the  relics  of  a  hero's  lifetime ;  they  could  see 
the  sceptre  of  Agamemnon  at  Chaeroneia,1  the  skin  of  the  Caly- 
donian  boar  whose  ravages  had  summoned  so  many  heroes  to  the 
hunt,2  the  spring  of  Glance  at  Corinth,3  the  rock  at  Troezen 4  under 
which  Theseus  had  found  the  sword  and  shield  destined  for  his 
use,  the  house  of  Cadmus  at  Thebes  or  of  Menelaus  at  Sparta. 
These  men  had  sprung  directly  or  indirectly  from  the  union  of  a 
god  and  a  mortal  woman  or  nymph  ;  their  tombs  became  centres 
of  worship,  for  the  divine  part  of  their  nature  did  not  die ;  from 
time  to  time  they  appeared  as  superhuman  warriors  or  hunters  to 
bless  their  worshippers.  The  myths  of  these  heroes  helped  to 
make  them  real  and  to  extend  their  worship. 

The  facts  of  hero  worship  are  fairly  plain  to  the  student  of 
Greek  religion,  but  the  problem  of  their  interpretation  is  more, 
far  more,  complicated  than  it  appeared  to  the  Greeks  themselves. 
The  worship  of  the  hero  was  carried  on  at  what  purported  to  be 
his  grave,  and  his  help  was  sought  in  the  belief  that  his  powerful 
spirit  resided  not  in  Hades  but  in  and  about  the  grave.  The 
grave  was  separated  from  the  profane  land  about  it  by  an  enclos- 
ure, a  building  (heroon)  was  often  erected  over  it  or  a  grove 
planted  near  it,  while  the  snakes  that  chanced  to  find  a  home  near 
by  were  regarded  as  appearances  of  the  herb  himself.  In  trenches 
by  the  grave  or  on  a  low  mound  (corxapa)  near  by,  sacrifices  were 
offered,  ordinarily  whole  burnt  offerings  (evaywr/Aara)  such  as  were 
offered  to  gods  of  souls  and  of  agriculture,  though  at  some  hero 
shrines  men  shared  a  communion  meal  with  the  hero  as  with  a 
god.5  This  worship  involved  the  belief  that  the  hero  was  a  being 
powerful  to  send  unusual  good  or  unusual  evil  within  the  somewhat 
limited  sphere  of  his  activity.  He  cruelly  avenged  neglect  or 
sacrilege ;  if  properly  worshipped  he  would  help  defend  the  land 

1  Pausanias,  9.  40.  n.  8  Pausanias,  2.  3. 6. 

2  Pausanias,  8.  47.  2.  4  Pausanias,  2.  32.  7. 
6  Cp.  supra,  p.  108;  and.*./.  Pausanias,  2. 10.  i ;  10.  4.  10. 


166  GREEK   RELIGION 

against  enemies,  stop  pestilence,  heal  the  sick,  foretell  the  future. 
To  obtain  such  aid  the  bones  of  Orestes  were  brought  to  Sparta, 
the  bones  of  Theseus  to  Athens,  and  shrines  were  erected  in  their 
honor.1  Indeed,  it  was  a  regular  practice  for  the  Delphic  oracle 
to  introduce  the  worship  of  a  local  hero  as  the  remedy  for  any 
form  of  pestilence,  with  the  result  that  this  type  of  worship  was 
widely  extended  during  the  fifth  century  B.C. 

The  worship  of  men  as  heroes  after  their  death  is  not  attested 
before  the  fifth  century  B.C.,  and  it  was  not  common  till  consider- 
ably later.  There  is  no  reason  to  believe  that  the  older  cults  of 
heroes  were  the  outgrowth  of  funeral  rites  for  the  kings  and 
princes  whose  names  they  bore.  The  most  important  fact  to  be 
considered  in  the  examination  of  hero  worship  is  that  many  of 
the  heroes  were  connected  with  some  god,  and  often  their  names 
occurred  as  local  epithets  of  this  god.  Erechtheus  and  Poseidon 
Erechtheus,  Agamemnon  and  Zeus  Agamemnon,  Amphiaraus  and 
Zeus  Amphiaraus,  Iphigeneia  and  Artemis  Iphigeneia,  Callisto 
and  Artemis  Callisto,  Chthonia  and  Demeter  Chthonia,  cannot  be 
regarded  as  in  each  case  absolutely  distinct  beings.  Amphiaraus 
is  Zeus  Amphiaraus,  i.e.  he  is  a  local  deity  often  identified  with 
Zeus ;  Erechtheus  is  a  local  Poseidon,  Iphigeneia  and  Callisto 
and  Dictynna  and  Britomartis  are  local  forms  of  Artemis,  Har- 
monia  is  a  Theban  Aphrodite,  —  the  list  might  be  extended  to 
include  more  than  half  the  names  of  cult-heroes  which  have  come 
down  to  us.  Students  are  not  agreed  as  to  the  exact  nature  of 
the  process  by  which  the  heroes  came  to  be  worshipped  as  such. 
In  some  instances  we  seem  to  be  dealing  with  the  worship  of  an 
ancient  god,  for  example  a  Dictynna  in  Crete,  who  was  later  iden- 
tified with  Artemis  in  myth  while  she  continued  to  be  worshipped 
in  the  original  locality  as  a  "  hero."  In  other  instances  we  seem 
to  find  the  same  process  as  in  the  worship  of  Nike,  namely  first 
the  worship  of  the  god  with  an  epithet  added  to  the  name 
(Athena  Nike),  then  the  treatment  of  the  epithet  as  the  name 
for  an  independent  local  deity.  In  either  case  a  hero  was  a  local 
1  Pausanias,  3.  3.  7;  3.  n.  10. 


THE   GREEK   GODS  167 

deity,  often  associated  with  some  greater  god,  who  was  wor- 
shipped in  much  the  same  manner  as  the  dead  and  the  gods  of 
the  dead. 

Founders  of  colonies  commonly  were  buried  in  the  market- 
place, we  are  told,  and  worshipped  as  local  heroes.  It  is  a  well- 
attested  fact  that  Miltiades  began  to  be  worshipped  in  the 
Chersonese,  and  Brasidas  in  Amphipolis,  immediately  after  their 
death.  Gelo  was  worshipped  as  the  second  founder  of  Syracuse, 
Aeschylus  as  the  benefactor  of  Gela,  soon  after  death.  The  wor- 
ship of  the  heroes  of  Marathon,  Thermopylae,  and  Plataea  was 
simply  the  continuation  of  funeral  rites  in  their  honor.  The  fol- 
lowers of  Plato,  Theophrastus,  and  other  philosophers  paid  tribute 
to  their  masters,  which  came  to  be  a  sort  of  hero  worship.  The 
wills  of  Epicteta  (Thera)  and  of  Epicurus  (Athens)  illustrate  how 
a  man  might  provide  for  semi-divine  honors  to  be  paid  to  him 
after  his  death.1  In  some  parts  of  Greece  the  dead  were  regu- 
larly spoken  of  as  heroes,  but  in  Athens  this  seems  never  to  have 
been  the  case.  It  was  this  worship  of  the  dead  as  heroes  which 
paved  the  way  for  the  deification  of  kings  in  the  Alexandrian  age, 
and  eventually  led  to  the  practice  of  worshipping  the  Roman 
emperors  even  during  their  lifetime. 

1  /.  G.  Ins.  3.  330 ;  Diog.  Laer.  10.  18. 


CHAPTER   IV 
THE   SOUL  AND   THE   FUTURE  LIFE 

1.  The  Epic  Conception  of  the  Soul.  —  The  contrast  already 
noted  between  the  poetic  gods  of  Homer  and  the  gods  of  actual 
worship,  is  repeated  in  the  contrast  between  the  epic  conception 
of  the  future  life  and  the  conception  which  underlies  the  prac- 
tices of  burial  and  soul  worship.  If  we  pass  over  the  twenty- 
third  book  of  the  Iliad  and  the  eleventh  book  of  the  Odyssey, 
with  a  few  scattered  allusions,  the  view  of  death  and  the  soul  in 
the  epic  is  consistent.  It  is  my  purpose  to  state  this  distinctly 
epic  view  before  examining  the  traces  of  another  conception  and 
attempting  to  explain  the  presence  of  two  all  but  contradictory 
views.1 

With  all  its  emphasis  on  the  joyful  side  of  life,  a  pessimistic 
vein  runs  through  the  epic,  and  this  vein  controls  the  allusions  to 
death.  Death  is  hateful,  evil,  man's  worst  enemy.  For  Achilles 
the  gates  of  Hades  are  the  symbol  of  what  is  most  to  be  dreaded  ; 
the  soul  of  Achilles  in  Hades  esteems  a  menial  position  on  earth 
better  than  that  of  a  king  in  the  world  below.2 

Whenever  the  word  "  soul "  (i/^xv)  *s  use(^  i°  tne  epic,  a  refer- 
ence to  death  is  intended ;  in  other  words  the  "  soul "  has  no 
place  in  the  psychology  of  the  living  man,  it  is  simply  what  goes 
to  Hades  when  the  man  dies.  It  is  said  to  fly  out  of  the  mouth, 
the  wound,  or  the  limbs.3  On  the  one  hand  the  soul  is  described 
as  an  etSwAoi/,  an  image  of  the  living  man ;  on  the  other  hand  it 

1  "  The  Conception  of  the  Future  Life  in  Homer."     Amer.  Jour.  Theol.  i  (1897) 
741  f. 

2  Odyssey,  12.  341 ;  Iliad,  3.  173 ;  3.  454 ;  9.  159. 
8  Iliad,  22.  467  ;   14.  518  ;  16.  856. 

168 


THE  SOUL  AND   THE   FUTURE   LIFE  169 

is  a  shadow,  a  form  without  substance,  for  all  the  substance  of  the 
body  has  been  burned  at  the  funeral.1  With  the  exception  of  the 
passages  to  be  discussed  below,  there  is  no  clear  and  definite 
statement  as  to  what  this  shadowy  image,  the  soul,  really  is.  In 
one  instance  it  is  poetically  described  as  mourning  its  departure 
from  manhood  and  youthful  vigor.2  The  definite  tendency  of  the 
poems,  however,  is  to  regard  souls  as  unconscious.  Real  life  with 
its  activities  and  joys  is  ended ;  "  to  go  to  Hades  "  means  "  to 
die  "  and  nothing  more.  Speculation  as  to  the  future  finds  no 
place  in  these  poems  of  the  market-place  and  the  banquet  hall. 
2.  Traces  of  an  Early  Worship  of  the  Dead.  —  In  later  Greek 
belief  the  soul  is  often  regarded  as  divinely  immortal ;  almost 
universally  the  souls  of  the  dead  are  worshipped  on  the  ground 
that  they  have  superhuman  power  to  bless  and  to  curse.  So 
general  in  early  religion  is  the  dread  of  souls  and  the  effort  to 
appease  their  wrath  that  something  of  the  kind  is  to  be  expected 
in  early  Greece  ;  and  in  fact  the  one  thing  we  certainly  know 
about  religion  in  the  Mycenaean  age  (see  p.  199)  is  that  the 
dead  were  buried  with  scrupulous  care.  Erwin  Rohde  has 
demonstrated  that  certain  passages  in  the  epic  can  only  be  under- 
stood as  surviving  rudiments  of  the  earlier  practice.3  The  soul 
of  Patroclus,  which  appears  in  a  dream  to  his  friend  Achilles,  is 
the  image  of  the  dead  man  with  none  of  his  substantial  being. 
At  the  same  time  it  differs  from  the  normal  epic  idea  of  the  soul 
in  that  it  not  only  has  consciousness,  but  also  a  knowledge  of  the 
future.  It  chides  Achilles  for  his  neglect,  prophesies  the  death 
of  Achilles,  and  prescribes  the  manner  of  the  burial  of  Patroclus's 
body.  Such  appearance  in  dreams  is  only  possible,  we  are  given 
to  understand,  because  the  body  of  Patroclus  is  not  yet  burned  ; 
the  fact  remains  that  here  the  soul  has  a  reality  and  conscious- 
ness and  superhuman  knowledge.  Just  before  death  the  soul 
may  foretell  the  future  through  the  man's  dying  lips,  as  in  the 
case  of  Patroclus  and  of  Hector.4  The  power  of  souls  to  appear 

1  Iliad,  23.  66 ;   Odyssey,  10.  495.  8  Psyche,  14  f. 

8  Iliad,  16.  857 ;  22.  362.  4  Iliad,  16.  851 ;  22.  358. 


1 7o  GREEK   RELIGION 

in  dreams  and  their  power  to  foretell  the  future,  are  survivals  of 
the  earlier  conception  of  the  soul  as  a  semi-divine  being.  It  is 
due  to  this  same  belief  that  the  bodies  of  the  dead  were  burned 
with  careful  ritual.  If  the  soul  be  divine,  it  may  be  worshipped 
to  secure  favor  and  blessing  for  its  surviving  relatives.  Primitive 
man  also  devised  a  very  different  method  of  dealing  with  the 
situation ;  fearing  the  supernatural  power  of  the  soul  for  evil,  he 
burned  the  body  of  the  dead  in  order  to  cut  off  any  point  of 
contact  with  this  world  which  it  might  have.  The  epic  treats 
the  souls  of  the  dead  as  unreal  images,  but  souls  must  be  care- 
fully laid  to  rest  else  man  may  expect  harm  from  them.  The 
special  rites  at  the  burial  of  Patroclus  (Iliad,  23)  —  the  sacrifice 
of  cattle  and  of  dogs  that  used  to  eat  beneath  the  dead  man's 
table,  in  particular  the  sacrifice  of  twelve  Trojan  youths  to  be 
burned  with  the  dead  man's  body,  finally  the  funeral  games  in  his 
honor  —  are  not  creations  of  the  poetic  imagination.  They  sur- 
vive from  a  time  when  men  offered  sacrifice  and  other  worship  to 
souls,  and  when  souls  were  thought  to  take  some  real  satisfaction 
in  the  offerings. 

In  books  eleven  and  twenty-four  of  the  Odyssey  there  is  an 
interesting  blending  of  the  old  and  the  new,  the  survival  of  early 
belief  and  the  epic  freedom  in  making  the  soul  an  unsubstantial 
shadow.  The  rites  of  incantation  for  evoking  the  soul  of  Teiresias 
must  be  derived  from  actual  practice  at  some  point  where  souls 
were  evoked  (as  Saul  caused  the  soul  of  Samuel  to  be  evoked1)  to 
ascertain  the  future.  The  trench  a  cubit  each  way,  the  libation 
first  of  honey  mixture,  then  of  wine  and  of  water,  to  all  the  dead, 
the  vow  to  sacrifice  in  Ithaca  a  barren  cow  to  all  the  dead  and 
a  black  ram  to  Teiresias,  the  blood  flowing  from  the  throats  of  the 
sheep  into  the  trench,  and  the  gathering  troops  of  souls, —  these 
are  no  mere  poetic  imagery.  In  the  account  of  the  interview  of 
Odysseus  with  Teiresias  and  with  his  mother,  which  follows  these 
rites,  the  souls  are  mere  shades.  They  come  and  go  in  troops, 
they  fly  and  cheep  like  bats  ;  they  differ  from  the  souls  described 
1 1  Samuel  28.  7  f. 


THE   SOUL  AND   THE   FUTURE   LIFE  171 

elsewhere  in  the  poems  only  in  their  longing  for  blood,  /'.<?.  for  the 
life  principle,  and  in  that  they  regain  consciousness  for  a  brief 
period  by  drinking  blood.  Teiresias  alone  retains  his  conscious- 
ness and  his  prophetic  powers  in  Hades,  apparently  because  the 
very  power  of  prophecy  removes  him  from  the  ranks  of  men  one 


FIG.  51.  —  ATHENIAN  RED-FIGURED  VASE  PAINTING  (Krater,  Paris) 
Odysseus  consulting  the  soul  of  Teiresias. 

step  nearer  to  the  gods.  The  poet  who  wrote  the  account  of 
Odysseus's  interview  with  the  heroes  of  the  Trojan  war1  went  a 
step  further  and  endowed  the  souls  of  these  heroes  with  some 
degree  of  consciousness  and  some  knowledge  of  the  future.  From 
them  Odysseus  learned  of  what  was  going  on  in  Ithaca  and  of 
what  would  happen  there  later,  though  they  did  not  know  the  fate 

1  Odyssey,  II.  385-567. 


ty*  GREEK   RELIGION 

of  their  own  sons.  Ajax  in  Hades  was  still  under  the  mastery  of 
that  hatred  for  Achilles  which  had  caused  his  death ;  Agamemnon 
was  attended  by  those  with  whom  he  used  to  fight ;  Achilles  was 
still  a  king,  little  pleasure  though  it  brought  him.  It  is  much  this 
same  view  which  appears  again  in  the  earlier  part  of  book  twenty- 
four. 

The  explanation  of  the  epic  treatment  of  the  future  life  is  to 
be  found  partly  in  the  migrations  from  the  mainland  of  Greece  to 
Ionia,  partly  in  the  social  influences  under  which  the  epic  poems 
developed.  The  early  Greeks,  so  far  as  we  know,  ordinarily 
buried  their  dead  and  continued  to  bring  food  and  other  gifts  to 
their  tombs,  though  cremation  was  also  practised.  The  colonists 
in  Ionia  (where  the  epic  probably  took  its  present  form)  found 
these  ties  weakened  by  migration,  and  cremation  proved  more 
convenient  than  burial.  By  this  means  the  souls  of  the  dead  were 
"  sent  to  Hades,"  and  the  worship  at  the  tomb  had  no  longer  any 
reason  for  existence.  The  practices  in  Ionia,  however,  did  not 
prevent  the  inhabitants  of  Greece  proper  from  keeping  up  the 
old  beliefs  and  the  old  worship.  If  we  may  assume  that  the 
pantheon  of  Olympian  divinities  was  taking  more  definite  shape  in 
this  age  and  winning  more  general  recognition,  the  influence  of 
these  universal  gods  would  in  itself  have  some  tendency  to  put  all 
local  worships,  including  the  worship  of  the  dead,  somewhat  into 
the  background.  Thus  the  very  development  of  religion  would 
temporarily  tend  to  make  the  belief  in  a  future  life  less  real.  And 
the  epic  in  its  songs  of  battle  and  of  travel  consistently  turned 
from  worship  to  story ;  the  gloom  of  death  was  simply  the  back- 
ground to  the  account  of  active  life ;  the  gods  became  actors  in 
the  story,  souls  became  mere  shades.  In  the  same  ratio  as  the 
gods  were  greater  and  happier  than  men,  so  life  in  this  world  was 
more  joyful  and  more  real  than  life  in  Hades.  It  is  only  as  an 
incident  of  distant  travel  that  we  get  the  picture  of  the  realm  of 
Hades,  a  realm  almost  as  shadowy  and  unreal  as  the  shades  who 
dwelt  there. 

The  significance  of  this  view  of  the  future  life  is  not  limited  to 


THE   SOUL   AND   THE   FUTURE   LIFE 


173 


Ionia,  where  it  seems  to  have  arisen.  The  Greek  lyric  with  its 
roots  also  in  Ionia  continues  the  epic  strain  in  regard  to  death. 
Attic  poets  of  tragedy  and  comedy  varied  between  the  epic  view 
and  thoughts  derived  from  actual  worship  of  the  dead.  It  is 
characteristic  of  the  Athenian  point  of  view  when  Plato  makes 
Socrates  assume  that  death  is  either  a  dreamless  sleep  (the  epic 
view),  or  the  introduction  of  the  soul  to  a  higher  form  of  life  (the 
view  based  on  worship  of  the  dead).1  One  great  service  of  the 
epic  for  Greek  religion  was  that  it  tended  to  free  the  minds  of  all 
who  came  under  its  influence  from  superstitious  fear.  So  the 
banishment  of  souls  from  the  tomb  to  a  distant  shadowy  realm 
tended  to  bring  to  an  end  all  fear  of  ghosts.  And  with  the  belief 
in  universal  gods,  the  way  was  opened  for  the  introduction  of 


FIG.  52. —  ATHENIAN  WHITE  LEKYTHOS  (Vienna) 
Prothesis  scene ;  mourners  about  the  couch  on  which  rests  the  body  of  the  dead. 

Dionysus  worship  and  the  development  of  the  mysteries  of  Deme- 
ter,  in  which  the  belief  in  a  real  future  life  found  religious  basis.2 

3.   Funeral  Rites.  —  Funeral  rites  at  Athens  included  the  "  lying 

in  state  "  in  the  home  (irpoOeo-is) ,  the  funeral  procession  (fK<f>op£), 

the  burial  or.  cremation  of  the  body,  and  the  banquet  in  honor  of 

the  dead.    The  eyes  and  mouth  of  the  dead  were  closed,  the  face  was 

l  Apol.,  40  C-E.  2  Supra,  p.  136. 


174  GREEK   RELIGION 

covered,  and  the  body  washed  or  anointed  with  perfumes,  offices 
performed  by  the  nearest  female  relatives  rather  than  by  hired 
attendants.1  On  a  high  couch  spread  with  sprays  of  pungent  herbs 
was  laid  the  body,  clad  in  white  garments  and  wreathed  with 
flowers,  while  about  it  stood  funeral  vases  (\r]Kv6oi)  manufactured 
specially  to  hold  the  perfumes  on  such  occasions.2  By  ancient 
custom  the  feet  were  toward  the  door  where  the  corpse  was  to  be 
borne  out.3  The  day  during  which  the  body  was  thus  exposed 
was  spent  in  lamentation.  Members  of  the  family,  the  slaves, 
near  relatives  and  friends,  and  often  some  hired  singers  conducted 
the  ritual  of  mourning  ;  until  it  was  prohibited  by  law,  the  women 
were  accustomed  to  tear  their  garments,  to  beat  their  breasts,  and 
to  scratch  their  faces  till  the  blood  ran  down.4  The  lamentation 
often  took  the  form  of  a  responsive  chant  to  flute  music,  with  a 
refrain  in  which  all  joined.5  In  any  case  there  seems  to  have 
been  an  element  of  worship  in  the  mourning.  The  Athenians, 
who  often  carried  money  in  the  mouth,  placed  in  the  mouth  of 
the  dead  a  two-obol  piece  for  Charon,  the  ferryman  of  the  Styx ; 
sometimes  the  dead  was  also  provided  with  a  honey-cake  for  Cer- 
berus.6 Meantime  a  vessel  containing  water  fetched  from  a  neigh- 
boring house  had  been  placed  at  the  door,  that  those  who  left 
the  house  might  purify  themselves  by  sprinkling.7 

Early  the  next  morning  came  the  funeral  procession.  The 
couch  on  which  the  body  had  lain  served  as  the  bier ;  before  it 
went  the  male  relatives,  behind  near  female  relatives,  with  hair 
cut  short  and  dressed  in  black  (or  gray).8  The  law  of  Ceos 
prescribed  silence  ;  at  Athens  hired  singers  might  accompany  the 
procession  with  their  sad  lays.  In  many  places  libations  were 

1  Iliad,  18.  350;   Plato,  Phaedo,  115  A ;  Lucian,  De  luctu,  n,  p.  927. 
a  Aristophanes,  Eccles.  1030  f.  8  /Had,  19.  212. 

4  Plutarch,  Solon,  12.  p.  84;  21,  p.  90;  cp.  Plato,  Leg.  7,  p.  800  E;  Lucian,  De 
luctu,  12,  p.  927. 

6  Iliad,  18.  315  ;  24.  719  f. 

6  Lucian,  De  luctu,  10,  p.  926;  Wachsmuth,  Das  alte  Griechenland  im  newen, 
118;  cp.  Aristophanes,  Lys.  601  and  schol. ;  Nub.  507, 

7  Euripides,  Ale.  98  f.;  Pollux,  8.  65. 

8  Euripides,  Ale.  427 ;  Demosthenes,  43.  69, 


176  GREEK   RELIGION 

poured  out  and  whole  burnt  offerings  sacrificed  at  the  grave ;  in 
Ceos,  for  instance,  the  law  limited  the  amount  of  wine  to  three 
measures  and  of  oil  to  one,  while  it  enjoined  the  sacrifice  of  an 
animal  "  after  the  custom  of  the  fathers."  J  At  Athens  the  sacri- 
fice of  cattle  was  expressly  forbidden  in  a  law  attributed  to  Solon.2 
For  those  killed  in  battle  the  Athenians  made  a  public  funeral, 
at  which  a  Pericles  or  a  Demosthenes  spoke  in  praise  of  the  pa- 
triotic virtues  of  the  dead.3  Athletic  games  in  honor  of  the  dead 
man  were  held  in  early  times,  but  they  dropped  out  of  use  until 
at  a  late  period  they  were  occasionally  revived. 

It  was  a  fundamental  principle  of  Greek  religion  that  the  body 
must  not  be  neglected.  The  unburied  body  is  said  to  be  a  cause 
of  anger  to  the  underworld  gods,  for  its  burial  is  their  due,  a 
source  of  impurity  bringing  a  curse  on  the  region,  a  blot  to  spoil 
any  worship  of  the  gods.4  In  war  there  were  truces  for  the  burial 
of  the  dead,  and  the  victors  buried  their  enemies  as  well  as  their 
friends.  The  traveller  who  found  a  corpse  unburied  must  place 
at  least  two  handfuls  of  earth  on  it  as  a  ceremonial  burial.5  The 
tragic  significance  of  Sophocles's  Antigone  lies  in  the  fact  that  the 
human  king  forbids  what  divine  law  absolutely  requires,  namely, 
the  burial  of  Antigone's  brother.  This  deep-rooted  requirement 
dates  back  to  the  fear  of  ghosts  in  the  early  stages  of  Greek 
religion. 

Both  burial  in  the  earth  and  cremation  seem  to  have  been 
practised  from  early  times.6  Burial  was  the  simpler  and  more 
natural,  cremation  more  imposing  after  a  battle,  more  convenient 
when  it  was  proposed  to  carry  home  the  bones  of  one  who  died 
in  a  foreign  land.  The  souls  of  those  who  were  buried  were 
thought  to  dwell  in  or  about  the  tomb  where  offerings  could  be 
brought  to  them.  That  the  tombs  were  placed  near  the  gates  or 
occasionally  inside  the  city,  and  again  that  they  were  often  formed 

1  Dittenberger,  Sylloge^,  877.  8  f.  8  Thucydides,  2.  34. 

2  Plutarch,  Solon,  21,  p.  90.  *  Iliad,  22.  358;    Odyssey,  u.  72. 
8  Sophocles,  Ant.  255,  and  schol. ;  Pausanias,  i.  32.  5. 

6  See  Hermann-Blumner,  Lehrbuch  der  griechischen  Antiqult'dten ,  4.  373,  for  the 
literature ;  cp.  Ath.  Mitth.  18  (1893)  104  f. 


THE   SOUL  AND  THE   FUTURE   LIFE 


177 


like  the  front  of  a  temple  (aedicula),  suggest  the  same  range  of 
ideas.  Cremation,  on  the  other  hand,  cut  off  souls  from  this 
world  more  or  less  completely  and  encouraged  the  idea  of  a 
realm  of  Hades  from  which  none  could  return.  The  two  con- 
ceptions were  so  blended,  however,  that  no  difference  between 
souls  of  the  buried  and  souls  of  the  cremated  was  ordinarily  recog- 


FIG.  54.  —  TERRA  COTTA  FIGURINES  FROM  TOMBS  AT  TANAGRA  (Boston) 

nized.  In  places  like  Athens,  where  both  were  practised,  it  is 
natural  that  the  difference  in  the  outcome  should  be  obliterated. 
In  either  case,  objects  used  by  the  dead  man  were  placed  be- 
side the  corpse.  Jewelry,  toilet  articles,  armor,  pottery,  and  vessels 
of  metal  were  placed  in  graves  of  the  Mycenaean  period,  as 
though  the  dead  man  would  still  need  them  as  during  his  life- 
time ;  only  much  of  the  jewelry  was  of  gold  leaf,  for  it  was  to  be 
used  by  shades.1  The  same  principle  held  good  later,  but  pottery 
predominated.  At  Athens  the  lekythoi  manufactured  for  use  at 
the  funeral  are  found  in  the  tombs  in  large  numbers.  From  early 

1  Hermann-Blumner,  Ibid.,  4.  379  f. ;  cp.  Jahr.  Inst.  7  (1892)  A.  A.  20;  Ath. 
Mitth.  1 8  (1893)  155  f. 

GREEK    RELIGION  —  12 


1 78  GREEK  RELIGION 

times  figures  of  divine  beings  were  placed  in  the  grave,  as  though 
to  bring  the  soul  of  the  dead  under  the  protection  of  these  gods. 
The  beautiful  Tanagra  figurines  were  a  survival  of  this  interesting 
practice. 

After  the  body  had  been  buried  or  burned  and  a  last  "  farewell " 
had  been  uttered,  the  mourners  returned  to  the  house  for  a  memo- 
rial banquet  in  honor  of  the  deceased  (ireptBtLirvov) .  Both  the 
persons  and  the  house  were  first  purified,  and  wreaths,  discarded 
since  the  death  had  occurred,  were  resumed  for  this  occasion. 
Women  relatives  as  well  as  men  were  present  at  this  banquet. 
The  purpose  of  it  was  to  recall  and  praise  the  merits  of  the  de- 
ceased ;  for  this  occasion  the  principle  de  mortuis  nil  nisi  bene 
was  enforced  by  law.  The  soul  of  the  dead  was  thought  to  be 
present  as  the  host  at  this  last  banquet  in  his  honor.1 

4.  The  Worship  of  Souls.  Though  many  of  the  funeral  customs 
probably  originated  in  a  worship  of  souls,  it  is  not  always  easy  to 
prove  the  point.  There  is  no  question  that  the  grave  monument 
originally  marked  a  sacred  spot  where  worship  was  carried  on. 
Plants  and  trees  were  placed  about  tombs  as  about  temples  to 
please  the  divinity  there  present.2  From  the  standpoint  of  the 
Olympian  gods  death  was  a  source  of  impurity ;  on  this  ground 
graves  were  ordinarily  outside  the  city  gates,  the  dying  were 
carried  away  from  the  shrines  of  Asclepius,  and  Delos  was  purified 
by  removing  all  graves  that  it  might  be  an  island  sacred  to  Apollo.8 
But  for  the  family  the  tombs  of  its  dead  were  important  shrines. 
There  are  some  indications  that  in  early  days  the  Greeks  buried 
their  dead  within  the  house,  as  in  many  Dorian  cities  they  con- 
tinued to  bury  them  inside  the  city  walls ;  then  the  cult  of  ances- 
tors would  be  the  central  element  in  the  worship  of  the  family.4 
In  Athens  members  of  the  family  brought  food  to  the  tomb  on 
the  third  day  and  the  ninth  day  after  the  funeral,5  a  custom  still 

1  Cicero,  de  leg.  z.  25/63.  2  Eustathius  on  Odyssey,  n.  538. 

8  Pausanias,  2.  27.  6;  Herodotus,  i.  64;  Thucydides,  3.  104. 
4  Plutarch,  Lycurgus,  27,  p.  56;  Pausanias,  i.  43.  3.;  Polybius,  8.  30. 
6  Aristophanes,  Lys.  612,  and  schoL ;  Isaeus,  8. 39 ;  Aeschines,  3.  225. 


THE  SOUL  AND   THE   FUTURE   LIFE  179 

observed  on  some  of  the  Greek  islands.  The  mourning  seems  to 
have  continued  for  thirty  days,  when  it  was  ended  with  an  offer- 
ing or  memorial  meal.1  At  Argos  this  offering  was  in  honor  of 
Hermes,  Conductor  of  souls ;  in  Sparta  a  similar  offering  at  the 
end  of  the  mourning  was  made  to  Demeter ;  perhaps  the  god  of 
souls  was  worshipped  with  the  thought  that  after  the  mourning 
the  soul  went  to  Hades  and  returned  to  the  tomb  only  on  occa- 
sions of  worship.  The  birthday  of  the  dead  was  one  such  occa- 
sion when  worship  was  offered  at  the  tomb  (yeve'cna),  as  though 
the  life  after  death  was  a  continuation  of  the  life  which  began  with 
the  birthday.2  At  a  festival  in  early  autumn  (the  city  Genesia  or 
birthday  celebration),  and  on  the  thirtieth  of  every  month  (at  the 
vEKvoW)  the  Athenians  brought  offerings  to  the  tombs  of  their 
respective  families.3  Finally,  at  the  Anthesteria,  a  festival  of  Diony- 
sus already  described  (p.  158),  the  souls  of  the  dead  were  free  to 
revisit  the  upper  world.  The  temples  of  the  gods  were  closed, 
pitch  on  the  doorposts  kept  the  souls  from  entering  private  houses, 
business  was  suspended,  while  libations  were  offered  to  the  dead 
and  pots  of  cooked  fruits  were  brought  to  Hermes,  Conductor  of 
souls. 

The  worship  at  the  grave  was  of  two  kinds  (i)  sacrifices  and 
libations  such  as  were  offered  to  heroes  and  to  gods  of  the  under- 
world, and  (2)  tokens  of  honor  and  affection.  The  sacrifice  of 
animals  at  the  tomb  was  not  a  necessary  part  of  soul  worship, 
though  in  many  places  the  sacrifice  of  a  sheep  was  customary.4  A 
black  animal  was  chosen,  its  blood  allowed  to  flow  into  a  trench 
by  the  grave,  and  the  carcass  cut  in  pieces  and  burned  (evayi£ecr0ai).5 
Apparently,  it  was  simply  the  blood  which  the  soul  of  the  dead 
man  wanted.6  On  the  ninth  day  after  burial  cooked  food,  spe- 

1  Plutarch,  Lycurgus,  27,  p.  56;  Quaest.  graec.  24,  p.  296  E;  Pollux  I.  66,  Bekker, 
Artec.  Graec.  268.  19. 

2  Petersen,  Geburtstagsfeier ,  301  f. 

8  Mommsen,  Feste  der  Stadt  Athen,  172;  Rohde,  Psyche,  215  i, 
*  Cp.  Ath.  Mitth.  18  (1893)  151,  155,  etc. 

5  Apollonius  Rhod.  i.  587,  and  schol. 

6  Pindar,  Olym.  i.  94;  Euripides,  Hec.  536;  Plutarch,  Arist.  21,  p.  332. 


i8o  GREEK   RELIGION 

cially  prepared  for  the  occasion,  was  placed  on  the  grave.1  When 
Lucian  speaks  of  banquets,  burned  at  the  grave  with  libations  for 
the  dead,  he  may  be  referring  to  this  practice.2  The  commonest 
offering  was  the  libation  (called  x0y>  not  wovSrj) .3  The  libations, 
consisting  of  honey  mixed  with  water,  of  unmixed  wine,  and  of 
olive  oil,  were  poured  into  a  trench  dug  beside  the  grave.  The 
honey  mixture  was  perhaps  an  old  drink,  in  use  before  the  general 
introduction  of  wine.  Oil  was  brought  to  the  dead  not  to  drink, 
but  probably  that  he  might  not  lack  what  the  living  man  regularly 
used  after  gymnastic  exercises  to  anoint  his  body.  So  in  some 
places  baths  of  water  were  set  in  large  basins  by  the  tomb  for  the 
use  of  souls.4  All  these  forms  of  worship  assume  that  the  soul 
desired  food,  drink,  water  for  bathing,  etc.,  just  as  the  living  man 
needed  them.5  If  they  were  provided  at  the  grave,  the  soul  was 
graciously  inclined  toward  the  dead  man's  kindred  and  descend- 
ants.6 It  is  suggested  that  in  some  way  the  continued  existence 
and  power  of  the  soul  depended  on  such  occasional  offerings. 

On  most  of  the  small  funeral  vases  (lekythoi)  found  in  Attic 
tombs  are  represented  scenes  at  the  grave.7  No  animal  sacrifice 
is  depicted,  but  not  infrequently  men  are  pouring  libations  to 
the  dead,  or  bringing  to  the  tomb  flat  baskets  containing  cakes 
and  fruits,  or  offering  phials  of  perfume  and  oil.  These  phials 
(alabastra)  are  often  set  on  the  steps  of  the  tomb  or  tied  to  its 
shaft.  In  the  same  way  a  sword,  a  helmet,  a  mirror,  a  fan,  are 
brought  to  the  tomb,  as  for  the  use  of  the  dead.  The  seated  man 
playing  a  harp  is  in  some  instances  probably  one  of  the  family 
making  music  for  the  soul,  as  he  had  made  music  to  gratify  the 

1  Cp.  Plautus,  Pseud.  3.  2.  6  (795)  ;  Aul.  2.  4.  45  (324). 

2  Lucian,  De  luctu,  19,  p.  931. 

8  Iliad,  23.  170  and  218 ;  Aeschylus,  Choeph.  15  f. ;  Sophocles,  Elec.  434  f. ;  Eu- 
ripides, Orest.  113  f. ;  Iph.  Taur.  633 ;  Dittenberger,  Sylloge,  877.  8. 

*Jahr.  Inst.  13  (1898)  13  f. ;  14  (1899)  103  f. 

6  Philol.  39  (1880)  378  f. ;  Jahr.  Philol.  135  (1887)  653  f.;  Aeschylus,  Choeph. 
483  f. ;  Lucian,  De  luctu,  9,  p.  926. 

6  Aeschylus,  Choeph.  93 ;  Euripides,  Orest.  118. 

7  Benndorf,  Griech,  Sicil,  Vzsenbilder  Taf,  xiv,  f. ;  Fairbanks,  Athenian  Whitt 
Lekythoi,  346  £, 


THE  SOUL  AND   THE    FUTURE   LIFE 


iSi 


man  while  he  lived.  Dolls  are  brought  to  the  graves  of  children  ; 
ducks  or  finches  and  rabbits,  pets  of  the  living,  are  brought  to  the 
tomb  to  amuse  the  dead.  Most  commonly  of  all  the  mourners 
hang  wreaths  on  the  monument,  or  fasten  ribbons  (taeniae)  about 
the  shaft.  These  practices 
all  grow  out  of  the  belief 
that  the  soul  of  the  dead 
is  present  to  enjoy  what 
the  man  had  enjoyed  be- 
fore he  died.  At  Athens, 
however,  they  tend  to  be- 
come a  form  of  pious  re- 
membrance of  the  dead, 
instead  of  forms  of  wor- 
ship. 

The  worship  of  souls 
was  probably  one  of  the 
oldest  elements  of  Greek 
religion,  the  foundation  of 
the  worship  of  chthonic 
gods,  an  all-important 
factor  in  the  rise  of  hero 
worship  and  the  worship 
of  agricultural  gods.  It 
was  perhaps  the  strongest 
force  in  giving  a  perma- 
nent unity  to  the  family, 
such  that  the  family  could 

serve  as  the  basis  for  an  enduring  organized  state.  A  man  felt  that 
he  must  have  children,  his  own  or  adopted,  to  keep  up  the  worship 
of  his  soul  after  death.  It  is  not  easy  to  state  exactly  what  advan- 
tage men  expected  from  this  worship,  or  with  what  feelings  they 
looked  forward  to  a  future  state.  That  the  soul  was  an  invisible 
being  with  some  degree  of  consciousness,  hovering  about  the  grave 
and  gratified  by  the  offerings  brought  there,  powerful  to  harm  and 


FIG.  55.  —  ATHENIAN  WHITE  LEKYTHOI 
(Athens) 

Offerings  at  the  grave;  a  bird  in  a  cage,  a 
dish  with  fruit,  a  duck,  and  a  flat  basket  (for 
vases,  wreaths,  etc.)  are  presented  before  the 
stele. 


1 82  GREEK  RELIGION 

to  help  so  that  its  blessing  was  sought  by  its  survivors,  is  plain.  It 
seems  plain,  also,  that  men  did  not  look  forward  to  any  moral 
retribution  after  death,  and  that  the  thought  of  future  blessedness 
was  not  part  of  the  old  soul  worship.  An  unquestioning  faith 
that  sometning,  however  shadowy,  persisted  after  death,  was  the 
foundation  of  the  later  developments  of  belief  in  the  worship  of 
Demeter  and  of  Dionysus. 

5.  The  Gods  of  the  Underworld.  —  Along  with  the  popular 
thought  of  the  souls  as  little  winged  beings  fluttering  about  the 
tomb,  there  existed  from  early  days  the  thought  of  a  realm  where 
the  souls  were  gathered.  Whether  it  was  placed  beneath  the 
earth,  as  the  body  was  buried  beneath  the  earth's  surface,  or 
whether  men  located  it  in  the  extreme  west,  as  in  the  Odyssey, 
the  conception  of  it  was  much  the  same.  It  was  the  "  house  of 
Hades,"  whose  name  means  invisible ;  it  was  dark  and  gloomy, 
so  that  men  at  death  bade  farewell  to  the  sun ;  Hades  was  called 
Polydegmon  and  Pankoinos,  for  he  received  all  who  came,  Isodai- 
tes,  for  he  assigned  them  equal  lots.1  That  the  lot  of  the  good 
man  should  be  better  than  the  lot  of  the  bad,  is  a  thought  that 
developed  very  slowly.  In  the  Odyssey  we  read  of  the  islands 
of  the  blessed,  a  future  abode  for  Menelaus  the  son-in-law  of 
Zeus,  not  for  the  good  and  the  brave ; 2  the  stories  of  Tityos, 
Tantalus,  Sisyphus,  etc.,  punished  for  crimes  against  the  gods,  are 
not  a  part  of  early  belief;  even  the  judgments  of  Rhadamanthus  and 
Aeacus  and  Minos  contain  the  thought  of  retribution  only  in  germ.3 

This  "  house  of  Hades "  was  the  more  real  because  streams 
swallowed  up  in  limestone  rock,  wild  caves  and  fissures,  spots 
where  mephitic  gases  were  emitted,  seemed  to  furnish  an  actual 
connection  between  this  world  and  the  world  below.  The  chasm 
under  the  Areopagus  rock  at  Athens  was  the  seat  of  underworld 
beings.4  In  the  precinct  of  Pluto  at  Hermione5  there  was  a  chasm 

1  See  Preller-Robert,  Index  III,  s.v.  Aides. 

2  Odyssey,  4.  566  f.  *  Odyssey,  n.  576  f. 

4  Thucydides,  i.  126;  Euripides,  Elect.  1270  f. ;  Pausanias,  i.  28.  6;  C.I. A.  II, 
948-950.  5  Pausanias,  2.  35.  10. 


THE   SOUL   AND   THE   FUTURE   LIFE 


183 


1 84  GREEK   RELIGION 

through  which  Heracles  is  said  to  have  brought  up  Cerberus  from 
Hades,  and  near  by  was  an  "Acherousian  lake."  Strabo1  says 
that  the  people  of  Hermione  thought  it  unnecessary  to  give  the 
dead  any  money  for  Charon,  because  Acheron  lay  in  their  own 
land,  instead  of  separating  the  land  of  the  living  from  the  place 
of  souls.  At  Eleusis,  at  Pheneos  in  Arcadia,  at  Lerna,  and  in 
Sicily,  caves  were  pointed  out  as  the  spot  where  Hades  carried  off 
Persephone  to  be  his  bride.2  At  Hierapolis  in  Phrygia s  there  was 
an  oracular  cave  under  the  temple  of  Apollo,  filled  with  gases  from 
below  which  only  the  initiated  could  breathe.  Other  "  Charo- 
neia"  or  "Plutonia"  in  Asia  Minor  are  mentioned  by  Strabo.4 
Herodotus5  tells  of  a  soul-oracle  (ve/c/ao/iavTeiov)  on  the  river 
Acheron  in  Thesprotia.  At  Taenaron  also  was  an  entrance  to  the 
lower  world  where  souls  could  be  evoked  and  consulted.  The 
worship  of  the  underworld  gods  was  pretty  closely  limited  to  these 
spots  where  physical  conditions  suggested  that  the  world  below 
was  directly  accessible. 

In  the  epic  "  mighty  Hades  and  dread  Persephone  "  were  rulers 
of  this  gloomy  world,  as  Zeus  and  Hera  were  rulers  of  the  world 
above.  The  picture  of  Hades's  realm  was  consciously  made  the 
counterpart  to  that  of  the  realm  of  Zeus,  a  dim  shadowy  copy  of 
life  on  the  earth.  All  the  awfulness  of  death  gathered  about  the 
king  and  queen  of  the  shades ;  they  alone  of  the  gods  were  un- 
touched by  human  prayers ;  men  sought  their  help  only  in  wreak- 
ing vengeance  on  an  enemy.  "  Persephone  "  like  "  Tisiphone  " 
suggested  pursuing  punishment,  anything  but  the  Daughter  who 
was  worshipped  with  the  Grain  Mother  at  Eleusis.  The  trans- 
formation of  this  Persephone  into  the  daughter  of  Demeter,  and 
of  Hades  into  Pluto,  the  god  of  wealth,  is  a  problem  not  yet 
fully  solved.  There  is  reason  to  think  that  the  god  of  riches  in 
the  earth,  riches  of  mineral  wealth  and  riches  gained  from  the 

1  Strabo,  8,  p.  373. 

2  Pausanias,  i.  38.  5 ;    2.  36.  7 ;  Diodorus.  Sic.  5.  3 ;  Plutarch,  Quaest.  phys.  23, 
p.  917  F. 

*  Strabo,  13,  p.  629.  4  Strabo,  12.  579 ;  13.  629 ;  14. 649. 

5  Herodotus,  5.  92.  7. 


THE  SOUL  AND   THE   FUTURE   LIFE  185 

earth  by  means  of  agriculture,  was  worshipped  from  early  times 
in  certain  localities.  He  would  be,  for  example,  the  agricultural 
Zeus  worshipped  with  Ge  (earth)  in  the  island  of  Myconos,1  and 
the  Pluto  of  Eleusis.  This  god  may  then  have  been  identified 
with  the  Hades  of  Homer  and  of  later  myth  for  the  very  simple 
reason  that  both  were  gods  who  ruled  beneath  the  earth's  surface. 
And  as  for  Persephone,  the  story  of  her  rape  furnishes  a  kind 
of  explanation  as  to  how  Demeter's  daughter  became  Hades's 
queen.  Demeter  is  not,  like  Pluto,  an  underworld  god ;  it  is 
through  her  daughter  that  Greek  belief  must  make  the  con- 
nection between  the  queen  of  souls  and  the  growing  corn.  Per- 
haps the  sowing  of  the  seed  and  the  sprouting  of  the  grain  itself 
made  the  daughter  of  Demeter  the  underworld  goddess  for  part 
of  the  year,  a  goddess  who  then  was  identified  with  the  queen  of 
souls.  The  epic  conceptions,  however,  kept  their  hold  on  litera- 
ture and  in  some  measure  on  religious  belief.  Hades  continued 
to  mean  death ;  Pluto  remained  a  local  divinity ;  it  was  only  the 
initiated  in  the  Eleusinian  mysteries  who  could  confidently  look  to 
the  queen  of  the  dead  as  the  kindly  daughter  of  the  earth-mother. 
The  only  other  divinities  of  souls  who  found  wide  recognition  in 
religion  were  the  Erinyes.  In  the  Homeric  poems  they  enforced 
the  rights  of  strangers,  and  in  particular  they  guarded  the  rights 
of  the  firstborn.2  Later  they  were  the  special  avengers  of  crime 
against  the  family ;  they  pursued  Orestes  for  the  murder  of  his 
mother  Clytemnestra,  even  though  this  was  vengeance  prescribed 
by  the  Delphic  Apollo.3  The  "Erinyes  of  Clytemnestra"  who 
avenged  the  mother's  blood,  however  rightly  shed,  were  the  spirits 
of  the  family,  perhaps  the  souls  of  ancestors.4  When  the  Erinyes 
(or  Furies)  were  worshipped  they  were  called  Eumenides  (Kindly), 
Semnai  (Revered),  Potniai  (Queenly),  as  though  men  would  flatter 
them  by  such  names.  They  did,  however,  have  another  side  to 
their  nature  in  that,  like  Hades  and  Persephone,  they  were  god- 
desses of  agriculture. 

1  Dittenberger,  Sylloge,  615.  25.  «  Aeschylus,  Bum.  passim. 

2  Odyssey,  14.  57 ;  Iliad,  15.  204.  *  Rohde,  Psyche,  247- 


1 86  GREEK   RELIGION 

6.  Transfiguration  of  the  Future  Life  in  the  Worship  of  Dionysus 
and  of  Demeter.  —  We  have  seen  that  in  the  Homeric  poems 
themselves  there  is  a  transition  from  the  belief  that  souls  are 
nothing  but  shades  to  the  belief  that  these  shades  retain  con- 
sciousness. This  consciousness  is  a  bane  rather  than  a  blessing, 
for  it  brings  with  it  no  joy.  So  the  worship  of  souls  lends  to  them 
certain  powers  for  and  against  human  welfare;  it  brings  them 
nearer  to  men  and  makes  them  dependent  on  the  gifts  brought  to 
them  in  worship ;  yet  men  do  not  look  forward  to  any  joy  in  the 
worship  of  their  souls  after  death.  The  contrast  is  most  striking 
between  these  views  and  that  expressed  by  Pindar :  "  Blessed  he 
who  goes  beneath  the  earth  after  seeing  these  mystic  rites;  he 
knows  the  goal  of  life,  he  knows  its  Zeus-given  beginning." l  It  is 
in  connection  with  the  religious  revival  of  the  seventh  and"  sixth 
centuries  B.C.  that  the  new  thought  of  the  future  life  obtains  a 
place  in  Greek  religious  belief. 

The  nature  of  Dionysus  worship  and  its  introduction  into  Greece 
are  considered  in  Part  II  (Chap.  iii).  In  Thrace  the  wor- 
shippers of  this  god  believed  in  the  continued  existence  of  the 
soul  after  death  and  the  return  of  the  soul  to  this  world  again.  In 
the  actual  experiences  of  a  religious  frenzy  in  which  men  were 
"possessed"  by  the  god,  called  by  the  divine  name,  gifted  with 
divine  foresight,  the  Thracians  realized  their  belief  that  the  soul 
was  made  of  divine  stuff.  The  revival  which  brought  this  re- 
ligion into  Greece,  came  with  convincing  force,  for  the  northern 
god  made  his  presence  felt  by  his  worshippers.  The  Greeks  too 
yielded  to  his  maddening  touch  and  found  proof  in  personal  ex- 
perience that  the  soul  of  the  worshipper  was  of  the  same  nature 
as  the  god  who  possessed  it.  From  the  epic  on,  immortality  and 
divinity  were  almost  interchangeable  terms.  It  was  good  logic 
for  the  Greek  to  hold  that  if  the  soul  of  the  living  man  is  of  divine 
nature,  the  soul  of  the  dead  continues  to  be  divine  and  immortal. 

This  new  phase  of  religion  with  its  wild  orgiastic  ritual  was 
diametrically  opposed  to  the  Homeric  standards.  Its  rapid  prog- 
l  Pindar,  Frag.  (102)  114. 


THE  SOUL  AND  THE   FUTURE   LIFE  187 

ress  was  in  some  measure  due  to  its  uncompromising  claims ;  its 
decline  was  inevitable  except  as  its  practices  were  modified  to 
correspond  with  the  habits  of  Greek  thought.  But  though  the 
"  revival "  lost  much  of  its  vitality,  though  the  worship  of  Dionysus 
was  reduced  to  a  state  cult  in  which  religious  experience  gave  way 
to  splendid  forms,  its  power  did  not  completely  die.  The  longing 
for  a  real  future  life  which  it  stimulated  in  individuals,  led  to 
private  "  initiations  "  and  religious  associations  in  order  to  secure 
the  favor  of  underworld  gods ;  its  aspirations  reappeared  in  the 
poetry  of  Sophocles  and  the  philosophy  of  Plato ;  in  the  worship 
of  Demeter  at  Eleusis  the  new  conceptions  found  a  congenial  soil 
in  which  they  sprang  up  and  bore  abundant  fruit.1 

The  mysteries  of  Eleusis  and  similar  rites  elsewhere  in  Greece 
were  based  on  an  old  peasant  worship  of  agricultural  deities.  The 
gods  of  the  dead  who  were  buried  in  the  earth,  and  of  the  grain 
which  sprang  from  the  earth,  were  not  sharply  distinguished,  but 
at  Eleusis  the  earlier  purpose  of  the  rites  was  to  secure  abundant 
crops.  We  may  believe  that  Eleusis  first  developed  as  a  priest- 
state  devoted  to  the  worship  of  the  grain  goddesses,  and  sought 
to  make  good  its  claim  to  be  the  centre  and  source  of  their 
worship.2 

It  was  the  introduction  of  lacchus  (a  form  of  Dionysus)  into 
these  mysteries  which  gave  them  their  distinctive  character  in  the 
great  days  of  Greece.  That  same  assimilating  power  which  later 
brought  Asclepius  and  his  healing  rites  into  this  worship,  some  two 
centuries  earlier  enabled  the  Eleusinian  goddesses  to  appropriate 
the  essence  of  the  Dionysus  revival  by  making  a  place  in  their 
worship  for  lacchus.  In  the  fifth  century  B.C.  all  the  emphasis  in 
the  mysteries  was  on  the  hope  for  a  life  of  blessedness  after  death 
for  those  who  had  been  initiated.  The  source  of  this  hope  was  no 
new  dogma.  The  universal  belief  that  souls  persisted  after  death 
was  now  a  belief  that  they  persisted  with  some  degree  of  con- 
sciousness ;  at  Eleusis  this  belief  was  enriched  by  the  experience 
of  initiation,  the  experience  that  Hades  was  not  implacable  and 

1  Cp.  supra,  p.  128,  and  notes.  2  Supra,  p.  129  f. 


1 88  GREEK   RELIGION 

cruel  to  those  who  seek  him  rightly,  the  experience  of  the  blessed- 
ness which  his  queen  Persephone  granted  to  the  initiated.  lac- 
chus,  the  reborn  Dionysus,  was  only  the  symbol  for  that  religion 
of  experience  which  found  a  truly  Greek  form  in  these  mysteries. 
The  Eleusinian  rites  were  but  one  of  many  forms  of  initiation, 
the  aim  of  which  was  to  set  one's  self  right  with  the  gods  of  the 
lower  world.  Their  widespread  influence  was  due  to  the  policy 
of  Peisistratus  ;  by  including  Eleusis  among  the  cults  of  the  Athe- 
nian state  he  gave  political  sanction  to  a  worship  hitherto  purely 
local,  and  at  the  same  time  enabled  the  state  religion  to  meet 
the  new  demand  for  a  "  soul-saving "  worship.  Nevertheless, 
the  Dionysus-belief  that  the  soul  was  divine  and  immortal  re- 
mained the  possession  of  a  few.  For  the  Athenian  in  the  days 
of  Pericles  death  was  (i)  departure  from  this  world  of  reality  and 
joy,  and  (2)  the  entrance  on  a  future  life  not  uncomfortable  so 
long  as  his  descendants  continued  to  bring  him  offerings ;  but  if 
he  were  initiated  at  Eleusis  it  meant  also  (3)  a  life  of  real  blessed- 
ness in  the  presence  of  Persephone  and  Hades.  Thus  Socrates 
could  anticipate  meeting  just  judges  and  the  great  men  of  past 
days  in  that  future  world ;  the  Antigone  of  Sophocles  could  look 
forward  to  an  affectionate  welcome  from  the  father  and  mother 
and  brothers  whom  "  Persephone  had  received  among  the  dead  "  ; 
and  Isocrates  could  say  "  those  who  share  this  initiation,  have 
sweet  hopes  both  for  the  end  of  life  and  for  all  future  time."1 

l  Plato,  Apol.  41  A-C ;  Sophocles,  Ant.  897  f. ;  Isocrates,  4.  28 ;  cp.  Aristopha- 
nes, Ran.  380  f. ;  Pausanias,  10.  31.  9. 


PART   II 

HISTORICAL   SKETCH    OF   RELIGION   IN 
GREECE 

CHAPTER   I 
THE   BEGINNINGS   OF   GREEK    RELIGION 

1.  Periods ;  Methods  of  Investigation.  —  The  early  history  of 
Greek  religion,  and  even  the  periods  in  which  this  history  has  to 
be  considered,  have  been  profoundly  modified  by  recent  investi- 
gations. During  the  last  thirty  years  the  remarkable  discoveries 
in  Greece  and  Crete  have  added  new  and  striking  chapters  to  our 
knowledge  of  Greek  history.  Incomplete  as  are  the  data  in  regard 
to  the  religion  of  Greece  before  1000  B.C.,  it  is  now  possible  to 
speak  tentatively  of  its  form  during  the  Mycenaean  age,  and  even 
in  the  period  which  preceded  the  Mycenaean  age.  Coming  down 
to  the  Homeric  poems,  we  find  that  they  raise  one  of  the  most 
difficult  questions  in  the  history  of  Greek  religion  ;  to  interpret 
the  epic  picture  of  religion  and  explain  its  relation  to  religious 
belief  and  practice  in  the  age  when  the  poems  arose,  are  problems 
which  have  received  most  contradictory  solutions.  In  the  later 
history  of  this  religion  the  attention  of  the  student  is  focussed  on 
that  important  movement  connected  with  the  religion  of  Dionysus 
and  of  Demeter,  of  which  the  Orphic  sect  was  but  one  expression. 
Accordingly  the  main  topics  to  be  considered  in  a  sketch  of  the 
history  of  Greek  religion  will  be  the  following  :  — 

I.   The  Beginnings  of  Greek  Religion. 

II.    Religion  in  the  Greek  Middle  Ages  (1100-700):   The  epic 
picture  of  religion. 

189 


190  GREEK   RELIGION 

III.  Religion  in  the  Seventh  and  Sixth  Centuries,  B.C.  :  The  rise 

of  Demeter  and  Dionysus  worship. 

IV.  Religion  in  the  Fifth  and  Fourth  Centuries,  B.C.  :  Hellenism 

at  its  height. 

V.  The  Outcome :  Religion  in  the  Hellenistic  age ;  The  influ- 
ence of  Greek  religion  on  Roman  civilization  and  on 
Christianity. 

Before  discussing  the  lines  of  investigation  by  which  knowledge 
of  the  earlier  epochs  may  be  obtained,  it  is  necessary  to  point  out 
two  principles  which  have  often  been  overlooked  in  dealing  with 
this  general  topic.  In  the  first  place  Greek  religion  cannot  be 
studied  by  itself.  It  is  so  intimately  connected  with  other  phases 
of  civilization  and  culture,  not  to  say  with  political  development, 
that  its  history  must  be  studied  step  by  step  with  the  broader 
history  of  the  people.  The  epochs  of  the  history  of  Greek  religion 
are  not  different  from  the  epochs  of  the  history  of  the  Greek  people. 
The  forces  which  directed  politics  and  scientific  investigation,  the 
social  and  moral  ideals,  even  the  forms  of  commerce  and  industry, 
are  determining  facts  for  the  development  of  this  religion.  Per- 
haps the  study  of  religious  phenomena  has  as  much  to  contribute 
to  Greek  history  in  general  as  the  study  of  industry,  or  the  study 
of  social  institutions  ;  conversely  the  study  of  Greek  religion  with- 
out taking  into  account  other  phases  of  life  can  never  produce 
trustworthy  results.  A  few  examples  will  illustrate  the  importance 
of  this  principle.  We  have  pointed  out  that  the  Zeus  worshipped 
in  each  hamlet  differed  in  greater  or  less  degree  from  any  other 
form  of  Zeus.  The  question  whether  one  "  sky  god  "  has  been 
split  up  into  these  countless  forms,  or  whether  the  similar  gods 
worshipped  by  different  groups  of  people  gradually  tended  to  be 
merged  into  one  god,  father  of  gods  and  men,  is  fundamental. 
The  long-accepted  belief  that  the  unity  of  Zeus  is  original,  the 
variety  of  the  local  forms  of  Zeus  a  development  more  or  less  acci- 
dental, neglects  the  historic  fact  that  the  conscious  unity  of  the 
Greek  people  was  the  outcome  of  a  long  process  of  development. 


THE   BEGINNINGS   OF   GREEK   RELIGION       191 

Again,  it  is  not  reasonable  to  regard  Crete  as  the  one  main  source 
of  Greek  religion,1  unless  it  is  also  the  source  of  other  forms  of 
Greek  civilization.  If  it  should  seem  to  be  proved  that  the  cults 
of  Crete  were  a  determining  factor  for  religion  as  it  is  found  on 
the  Balkan  peninsula,  it  would  still  be  necessary  to  look  for  Cretan 
influence  along  other  lines  before  the  proof  would  be  complete. 
Once  more,  the  two  main  types  of  sacrifice  in  Greece  —  the  com- 
munion meal  and  the  piacular  sacrifice  —  cannot  stand  for  two 
periods  in  the  history  of  religion,  until  each  form  has  been  defi- 
nitely connected  with  one  epoch  in  the  history  of  the  Greek  people. 
The  principle  under  discussion  does  not  rest  on  any  mere  theoreti- 
cal basis.  Such  historical  facts  as  that  hunting  is  more  primitive 
than  the  keeping  of  domestic  animals,  that  a  nomad  life  precedes 
agriculture,  that  seafaring  and  commerce  belong  to  a  higher  stage 
of  society  still,  are  facts  reflected  in  the  history  of  each  god  as 
well  as  in  the  history  of  worship. 

A  second  principle,  now  somewhat  generally  recognized,  is  that 
localities  of  worship  and  local  forms  of  worship  tend  to  persist 
through  the  greatest  changes  in  outward  belief.  The  discussion 
of  ancient  Greek  cults  in  Christian  Greece  (cp.  p.  285  f.)  illustrates 
the  wide  reach  of  this  principle.  The  tenacity  of  old  forms  always 
characterizes  religion  more  than  any  other  department  of  human 
life.  The  interpretation  of  a  worship  may  change  and  imposing 
ceremonies  may  be  added ;  still  the  forms  are  likely  to  continue  as 
they  have  been  handed  down,  means  by  which  the  divine  power 
may  be  propitiated.  The  flexibility  of  myth  stands  in  striking 
contrast  with  the  relatively  fixed  character  of  worship.  Even  when 
myth  stood  in  much  closer  relation  to  belief  than  in  the  days 
when  it  furnished  the  theme  of  lyric  or  tragic  poet,  yet  its  ready 
response  to  any  change  in  environment  must  be  admitted.  Con- 
sequently the  investigation  of  myth  yields  relatively  little  for  the 
history  of  religion.  On  the  other  hand  worship  is  something  so 
intensely  practical,  so  tenacious  of  old  forms  though  their  meaning 

1  As  does  O.  Gruppe,  Griechische  Mythologie  und  Religionsgeschichte. 


I92  GREEK   RELIGION 

be  forgotten,  so  slow  to  yield  even  when  the  religious  conscious- 
ness demands  some  new  type  of  religion,  that  in  the  study  of  cult- 
practices  is  to  be  found  material  for  the  entire  religious  history  of 
such  a  people  as  the  Greeks. 

In  the  effort  to  reconstruct  the  early  history  of  Greek  religion 
before  the  rise  of  any  literature,  several  lines  of  investigation  are 
to  be  pursued,  (i)  The  first  definite  effort  to  deal  with  this 
problem  used  the  method  of  Indo-European  parallels.  The 
wonderful  advance  in  the  knowledge  of  Indo-European  languages 
which  followed  the  discovery  and  critical  study  of  Sanskrit  gave 
rise  to  the  belief  that  a  similar  method  would  yield  equally  impor- 
tant results  in  the  history  of  other  phases  of  culture.  The  com- 
parative method  was  applied  to  the  study  of  social,  industrial, 
political,  and  religious  institutions  with  varying  success.  Although 
the  belief  in  one  Indo-European  race  has  been  somewhat  shaken, 
yet  the  fact  that  all  the  European  languages  go  back  to  one  source 
justifies  the  student  in  seeking  some  likeness  in  the  early  religious 
development  of  the  peoples  who  spoke  these  languages ;  indeed, 
the  historic  relation  between  different  phases  of  culture  demands 
that  such  a  course  be  followed.  At  the  same  time  the  fact  that 
religious  belief  and  practice  do  not  follow  exactly  the  same  lines 
of  development  as  do  social  or  political  institutions,  is  a  warning 
to  caution.  When  one  people  subdues  another  and  occupies  its 
land,  sometimes  the  institutions  and  the  language  of  the  conquerors 
prevail  in  the  territory  they  have  won,  or  on  the  other  hand  the 
language  and  the  civilization  of  the  country  may  survive  the  politi- 
cal changes,  as  was  the  case  in  Greece  under  Roman  domination. 
In  the  first  instance  the  conquerors  may  not  dare  to  neglect  the 
gods  and  the  worship  they  find  in  the  land,  though  they  bring 
their  own  gods  with  them  ;  in  the  second  instance  the  conquerors 
may  introduce  their  gods  that  brought  them  victory,  even  though 
their  language  tends  to  die  out.  Moreover,  it  is  evident  that  the 
spirit  of  a  people  dominates  and  shapes  religious  belief  more  than 
it  can  affect  language  on  the  one  hand,  or  the  forms  of  religious 
practice  on  the  other  hand.  It  is  just  this  tenacity  of  religious 


THE   BEGINNINGS   OF  GREEK   RELIGION      193 

forms  along  with  the  flexibility  of  the  content  in  these  forms  which 
makes  it  difficult,  to  apply  the  comparative  method  to  the  historical 
study  of  religion. 

(2)  A  second  method  of  investigation  uses  the  archaeological 
remains  which  have  recently  been  discovered  in  such  abundance 
in  Greece,  in  the  Aegean  islands,  and  in  Crete.     By  means  of  the 
relations  existing  between  early  Greece  and  Egypt  it  is  possible  to 
get,  with  some  assurance,  an  approximate  date  for  these  remains. 
The  difficulty  which  confronts  the  student  here  is  to  determine 
what  objects  really  have  religious  significance,  and  then  to  ascer- 
tain just  what  this  significance  is.     The  only  safe  principle  is  to 
reject  for  the  time  being  all  monuments  the  religious  meaning  of 
which  cannot  be  proved  by  the  circumstances  of  their  discovery, 
by  comparison  with  remains  from  a  later  date,  or  by  their  relation 
to  religious  objects  among  related  peoples.     Even  then,  it  may  be 
impossible  to  determine  the  significance  of  definitely  religious  monu- 
ments for  early  Greek  religion. 

(3)  Thirdly,  some  inferences  may  be  drawn  from  the  practices 
of  later  worship.     Many  of  the  local  forms  of  worship  in  later 
time  conform   to   the   type  suggested   by  the  Homeric  poems. 
Other  practices,  in  themselves  older,  were  profoundly  modified  by 
the  religious  movements  of  the  seventh  and  sixth  centuries,  B.C.  ; 
there  still  remain  some  rites  so  out  of  line  with  the  development 
of  religion  during  these  epochs  that  they  may  fairly  be  referred  to 
an  earlier  period.     With  all  the  obstacles  to  the  successful  use  of 
this  method,  some  results  obtained  by  it  may  be  accepted,  espe- 
cially when  they  are  in  harmony  with  the  results  of  other  lines  of 
investigation. 

(4)  Again  some  historical  data  throw  indirect   but  important 
light  on  the  special  history  of  religion.     A  study  of  the  cults  in 
colonies,  the   founding  of  which  may  be  approximately  dated, 
furnishes  evidence  as  to  the  cults  in  the  mother  cities.     Similarly 
the  stage  of  religious  development  in  Greece  at  the  time  of  the 
great  migrations,  in  particular  the  migrations  across  the  Aegean  to 
Asia  Minor,  is  indicated  by  a  comparison  of  the  later  conditions 

GREEK    RELIGION  —  13 


i94  GREEK   RELIGION 

in  the  regions  affected.  There  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  people 
of  Ionia  worshipped  Olympian  deities,  such  as  Zeus  and  Athena, 
Apollo  and  Poseidon,  because  they  brought  this  worship  with  them 
from  Greece.  It  is  fairly  well  established  that  Heracles  was  not 
originally  a  Dorian  god,  yet  it  must  be  admitted  that  he  was 
adopted  as  a  national  hero  at  the  time  of  the  "  Dorian  migration." 
Similarly  the  presence  of  many  Thessalian  cults  in  southern  Greece 
points  to  the  development  of  these  cults  in  the  north  before  a 
migration  southward. 

(5)  Another  line  of  historical  argument  is  concerned  with  the 
names  of  places  and  the  names  of  persons.  There  is  no  question 
that  many  names  were  "  theophoric,"  derived  from  the  name  of 
the  god  himself,  or  sometimes  from  practices  that  obtained  in  his 
worship.  The  study  of  language  throws  some  light  on  the  epoch 
when  these  names  were  formed,  and  historical  data  occasionally 
indicate  when  they  came  into  general  use.  For  example,  the  use 
of  the  names  of  the  Olympian  gods  without  change  as  names  for 
persons  is  known  to  be  late  ;  the  formation  of  adjectives  from  these 
Olympian  names  to  be  used  as  names  for  persons  or  places 
was  not  common  in  early  times ;  on  the  other  hand  such  forms 
as  Athenai,  Thebai,  Alalkomenai,  belong  to  a  far  earlier  epoch. 
The  special  advantages  of  this  method,  wherever  it  is  available, 
are  that  it  is  entirely  independent  of  the  others  mentioned  and 
that  the  results  thus  obtained  may  be  approximately  dated. 

2.  The  Type  of  Early  Religion  in  Greece.  —  The  common 
belief  of  kindred  races  in  later  times  and  in  particular  the  later 
Greek  belief  has  led  to  the  following  inferences  as  to  this  period  in 
Greece.  The  objects  and  processes  of  nature,  in  so  far  as  they 
attracted  man's  attention,  were  endowed  with  a  life  not  unlike  his 
own  (animism),  a  life  which  we  may  describe  by  saying  that  nature 
was  full  of  spirits.  What  these  spirits  were  is  hard  to  define ; 
sometimes  it  would  seem  that  they  were  the  souls  of  the  dead,  not 
properly  laid  to  rest,  again  it  is  not  so  much  souls  in  objects  as  a 
sentient  life  peculiar  to  the  objects  themselves  with  which  we  have 
to  deal.  If  we  may  say  that  nature  was  full  of  spirits,  it  is  neces- 


THE   BEGINNINGS  OF   GREEK   RELIGION      195 

sary  to  add  that  relatively  few  of  these  spirits  were  important  to 
man.  Only  such  as  represented  the  objects  which  he  used  and 
the  processes  in  nature  which  affected  him  for  good  or  evil, 
together  with  the  souls  of  his  ancestors,  demanded  his  attention. 
These  he  sought,  either  to  win  over  by  his  worship,  or  to  banish 
out  of  this  sphere  of  life  by  his  arts ;  his  gods  were  the  powerful 
spirits  whose  continuous  favor  he  sought  to  gain.  Among  the 
gods  we  may  assume  a  heaven  god,  the  source  of  light  and  warmth 
and  rain  ;  an  earth  goddess,  mother  of  vegetation  when  fertilized 
by  the  rain ;  perhaps  also  a  goddess  of  the  hearth  and  the  family, 
a  Hestia.  Spirits  which  protected  the  flocks  from  harm,  or  pro- 
duced young  of  the  flocks,  or  blessed  the  hunter  in  his  search  for 
game  were  also  worshipped.  In  a  word,  it  seems  that  some  nature 
gods  were  generally  worshipped,  and  some  "  departmental "  gods. 
The  contrast  between  these  communities  based  on  the  family  as 
the  primary  unit  and  the  Semitic  blood-clans,  between  these 
departmental  gods  (quite  generally  of  the  same  type,  though 
differing  in  detail)  and  the  Semitic  gods  who  are  of  one  blood 
with  their  worshipping  clans,  is  very  striking. 

We  are  justified  further  in  the  belief  that  worship  and  in  partic- 
ular the  greater  festivals  were  determined  by  the  annual  changes 
of  nature.  The  equinoxes  and  the  solstices,  the  date  of  sowing 
and  of  reaping,  etc.,  were  the  times  of  worship.  The  forms  of 
worship,  no  doubt,  were  shaped  by  that  sympathy  with  the  life  and 
death  of  vegetation  which  gave  rise  to  the  belief  in  gods  that  were 
born  and  died  each  year.  More  than  this,  men  thought  by  half- 
magical  rites  to  induce  germination  of  the  seed,  generation  in 
animals,  growth  in  plants  and  animals.  The  presence  of  these 
ideas  and  practices  both  in  later  Greece  and  among  other  Indo- 
European  races  indicates  that  they  date  back  to  a  very  early 
period. 

Particular  cases  of  cult  survival  cannot  be  traced  back  with  any 
confidence  to  this  epoch.  Cults  located  on  mountain  tops,  no 
doubt,  date  back  to  some  early  worship  of  the  heaven  god,  cults 
in  caves,  to  an  early  worship  of  the  earth  goddess  who  both 


196  GREEK   RELIGION 

receives  the  dead  and  gives  birth  to  vegetation.  The  reason  for 
assigning  to  these  cults  an  early  date  is  that  the  developed 
Mycenaean  civilization,  like  later  civilization  which  centred  in 
towns,  was  probably  unfavorable  to  the  creation  of  such  localities 
of  worship.  In  some  particular  cases  the  libation  without  wine, 
the  sacrifices  without  blood,  and  even  without  fire,  may  be  sur- 
vivals of  very  early  practice.1  That  springs,  particular  trees,  cer- 
tain kinds  of  animals,  were  held  sacred  by  some  communities,  is 
altogether  probable.  The  central  feature  of  "  totemism,"  the  sac- 
rificial meal  of  a  clan  on  its  kindred  animal,  is  nowhere  attested 
for  Greece.  On  the  other  hand,  the  animal  "  symbols  "  of  the 
Olympian  deities,  the  eagle  of  Zeus,  the  owl  of  Athena,  hardly 
originated  as  mere  symbols ;  and  it  is  also  pointed  out  that  the 
worship  of  a  bear  goddess  (Artemis)  by  girls  imitating  bears  by 
their  movements  and  their  brown  clothing,  and  called  "  bears  " 
(apKToi),  may  be  the  relic  of  a  very  early  worship  of  animals.2 

If  the  views  presented  in  the  preceding  paragraph  are  correct,  we 
must  assume  that  a  worship  of  "  tendance,"  which  aimed  to  secure 
the  favor  of  real  gods,  always  existed  in  Greece  along  with  the 
worship  of  "  aversion "  by  which  men  sought  to  drive  away  evil 
spirits  and  to  distract  the  attention  of  beings  which  might  harm 
them.  This  attempt  to  drive  away  evil,  or  in  later  language  to 
"  purify  "  one's  self  from  evil,  was  unquestionably  far  more  wide- 
spread before  the  rise  of  the  definitely  fixed  Olympian  deities 
which  Homer  pictures,  than  it  was  later  ;  in  fact  these  rites  belong 
to  the  lowest  stratum  of  Greek  religion,  although  the  attempt  to  treat 
them  as  exclusively  the  worship  of  any  one  period  seems  to  me  unhis- 
torical,  and  unjustified  by  any  arguments  yet  adduced  in  its  favor. 
To  this  earliest  period  we  are  to  assign  none  of  the  gods  of  later 
religion,  not  Zeus  on  the  one  hand,  nor  the  chthonic  gods  on  the 
other ;  rather  we  find  here  the  germs  out  of  which  the  later  gods 
were  developed  :  a  sky  god  worshipped  in  many  forms  in  different 

1  Polemon  in  scholion  to  Sophocles,  Oed.  Col.  100;  Pausanias,  i.  26.  6;  Plato, 
Leg.  6,  p.  782  C. 

2  Cp.  supra,  p.  122. 


THE   BEGINNINGS  OF  GREEK   RELIGION      197 

places  who  became  Zeus,  an  earth  goddess  who  appears  later 
under  several  names,  gods  who  preside  over  different  human 
activities — no  two  just  alike,  and  countless  spirits  many  of  which 
must  be  avoided  and  even  averted  by  special  rites. 

3.  Early  Religion  in  the  light  of  Archaeological  Remains.  — 
The  excavations  of  Schliemann  at  Mycenae  shed  the  first  light 
on  a  period  in  Greek  history,  which  till  then  was  but  dimly  known 
through  inferences  from  myth  and  from  the  epic.  Later  discoveries 
revealed  similar  remains  all  along  the  east  coast  of  Greece,  among 
the  Aegean  islands,  on  the  coast  of  Asia  Minor,  and  in  Crete. 
The  remains  marked  a  distinct  type  of  civilization,  often  called 
Mycenaean  because  Mycenae  was  one  of  its  most  important 
centres  of  influence.  The  pottery  and  utensils  were  of  a  type  so 
marked  that  they  were  readily  recognized  whether  they  appeared 
along  the  Aegean  sea,  in  Egypt,  or  in  more  distant  regions.  The 
situation  of  the  cities,  and  the  decorative  designs  on  the  remains, 
indicate  that  this  was  the  civilization  of  a  seafaring  people.  That 
it  was  at  its  height  about  1500-1200  B.C.  is  shown  by  dated 
Egyptian  objects  in  Mycenaean  tombs  and  by  Mycenaean  objects 
found  with  dated  remains  in  Egypt.  Although  the  impulse  to 
progress  in  art,  in  religion,  as  well  as  in  commerce  came  from  the 
east  and  south,  there  is  little  doubt  that  this  civilization  belonged 
to  an  essentially  Greek  people. 

In  Crete  alone  do  we  learn  much  of  the  earlier  periods  and  the 
civilization  out  of  which  the  Mycenaean  civilization  probably 
developed.  The  excavations  of  the  last  ten  years  in  Crete  seem 
to  indicate  three  main  periods  of  development,  only  the  third  of 
which  is  connected  with  what  has  been  called  Mycenaean.  These 
periods  are,  for  convenience,  called  by  the  names  assigned  by 
Mr.  Arthur  Evans,  "  Early  Minoan,"  "  Middle  Minoan,"  and  "  Late 
Minoan,"  while  subdivisions  in  the  periods  are  indicated  by  the 
Roman  numerals  I-III.1  The  third  main  period  was  marked  by 
the  irruption  into  Crete  of  an  Hellenic  race  from  the  north  ;  of  the 

1  The  dates  which  may  be  assigned  to  these  periods  are  discussed  in  Burrows, 
The  Discoveries  in  Crete,  and  in  Hawes,  Govrnia,  p.  2  f. 


198 


GREEK   RELIGION 


earlier  periods  we  can  only  say  that  the  people  were  of  a  different 
race,  not  necessarily  an  Aryan  race,  of  which  traces  have  been 
found  in  Asia  Minor,  if  not  in  Greece  itself.  It  is  clear  that  the 
first  important  civilization  of  the  Aegean  belonged  to  this  race ; 
that  it  centred  in  Crete ;  and  that  it  developed  into  a  sea-power, 


FIG.  57.  —  SECTION  AND  PLAN  OF  DOMED  TOMB  (Tholos)  AT  MYCENAE 

which  left  its  mark  in  the  legends  of  Minos.  The  name  "  Myce- 
naean "  must  be  limited  to  that  phase  of  early  civilization  which 
developed  in  a  Greek  race  through  its  contact  with  this  earlier 
race  in  Crete,  and  which  had  its  main  centres  in  the  Aegean 
islands  and  in  Greece  proper.  At  the  same  time  it  adopted  so 
much  from  the  earlier  periods  in  Crete  that  it  is  almost  impos- 
sible for  us  to  treat  it  by  itself. 

So  far  as  religion  is  concerned,  it  is  clear,  in  the  first  place,  that 
in  all  these  earlier  ages  there  was  a  real  belief  in  the  future  life, 


THE   BEGINNINGS   OF   GREEK   RELIGION      199 


if  not  an  actual  worship  of  the  dead.  The  utensils  found  in  early 
Cretan  tombs  —  vessels  of  stone  or  pottery  or  bronze,  rings  and 
jewelry,  weapons,  etc.  —  can  only  mean  that  the  dead  had  the 
same  wants  as  the  living.  The  later  domed  tombs  of  "  bee-hive  " 
shape  were  elaborate 
structures  erected  as 
homes  for  the  dead. 
Over  an  earlier  "  shaft  " 
grave  at  Mycenae  was 
found  an  altar  with  ashes 
and  charred  remains  of 
domestic  animals ;  here 
and  elsewhere  both  the 
bones  of  sacrificed  ani- 
mals and  the  objects 
found  with  the  dead  are 
evidence  of  a  real  wor- 
ship of  the  dead,  a  worship 
of  tendance,  so  far  as  we 
can  learn,  not  of  aversion. 
The  objects  of  thin  gold 
plate  found  in  such  abun- 
dance at  Mycenae  sug- 
gest, perhaps,  that 
dead  were  shades 


the 
who 

such  sub- 
and 


Bath  vessel  reconstructed  from  fragments  be- 
fore the  tomb  at  Menidi. 


FIG.  58.  —  ATTIC  BLACK-FIGURED  VASE 

PAINTING 
did   not   need 

stantial     ornaments 
utensils  as  living  men ;  yet 

the  bronze  vessels,  the  pottery,  and  the  armor  are  such  as  living 
men  used.  The  question  whether  worship  continued  to  be  offered 
at  the  tomb  after  the  ceremony  of  burial  was  finished,  cannot  be 
answered  absolutely.  Dr.  Wolters  infers  from  the  fragments  of 
pottery  found  in  the  entrance  of  a  bee-hive  tomb  near  Menidi  in 
Attica,  that  here  water  for  bathing  was  regularly  brought  to  the 
dead  in  a  high  basin,  until  the  practice  was  stopped  by  the  Pelo- 


200 


GREEK    RELIGION 


ponnesian  war ;  *  if  the  inference  is  accepted,  it  means  continued 
tendance  of  the  dead.  Again,  the  question  whether  rites  in  honor 
of  the  dead  should  be  considered  the  worship  of  gods,2  whether 
they  imply  a  belief  in  beings  themselves  potent  to  send  good  and 
evil  to  the  worshippers,  may  receive  different  answers.  If  the 
spirits  of  the  dead  were  not  banished  from  this  world,  but  tended 

with  kindly  offices,  we 
can  but  infer  a  real 
belief  in  their  power 
to  send  divine  bless- 
ings. 

Other  places  besides 
the  tomb  where  actual 
traces  of  worship  have 
been  found  are  the 
mountain  cave  and  the 
palace  shrine.  The 
cave  on  the  Cretan 
Mt.  Dicte  was  an  im- 
portant centre  of  wor- 
ship in  the  "  Minoan  " 
age.  A  large  stone 
altar,  small  libation 
tables,  layers  of  ashes 

with  incinerated  bones,  fragments  of  pottery  vases  and  figures, 
small  double  axes  and  figurines  of  bronze,  all  attest  its  impor- 
tance as  a  shrine  in  the  Middle  and  Late  Minoan  periods.  There 
is  no  definite  evidence  as  to  the  god  or  goddess  here  worshipped. 
Tradition  and  myth  connect  the  birth  of  Zeus  with  Mt.  Dicte  as 
well  as  with  Mt.  Ida ;  we  only  know  that  with  the  advent  of  the 
Dorians  in  Crete  the  Idaean  shrine  rapidly  gained  the  pre- 

1  Jahr.  Arch,  Inst.  13  (1898)  13  f. ;  14  (1899)  103  f. 

2  On  the  interesting  sarcophagus  from  Hagia  Triada  one  scene  is  interpreted 
as  representing  worship  offered  to  the  dead  man  in  front  of  the  tomb ;  Lagrange, 
La  Crete  ancienne,  65,  fig.  35. 


FIG.  59.  —  PLAN  OF  THE  DICTAEAN  CAVE 


THE   BEGINNINGS   OF   GREEK   RELIGION      201 


STEATITE 
DOUBLE   D™BLE 


DOUBLE    GODDESS 
RESTORED  ON  HEAD 

db 


LOWER 
— Y.  STEP 


SHRINE  OF 
DOUBLE  AX 


SECTION 


HOLDING  DOVE       FEMALE  FIGURE 


d    ^FI 


FEMALE  GODDESS 
WITH  DOVE  ON  HEAD 


,   i  i         d    OFEMALE       I 

/  SMALL  VOTARY      FIGURE    I 

•'DOUBLE  AX     !          i    CYLINDRICAL 

•^     OF  STEATITE  -^  4-        BELOW     4-    •+ 


RAISED  BASE 
WITH  PEBBLED  FLOOR 
AND  PLASTER   FACING 


CLAY  VESSELS- 


K 1-50 -5 


Centimetres^. 


\  Metre. 


FIG.  60.  —  THE  "  SHRINE  OF  THE  DOUBLE  AXES  "  AT  CNOSSOS 


202  GREEK   RELIGION 

eminence,  and  that  this  was  a  shrine  of  Zeus,  the  Greek  god  of 
the  heavens. 

In  the  Cretan  palaces  which  have  been  excavated  at  Cnossos, 
Phaestos,  Hagia  Triada,  and  Gournia,  small  rooms  have  been  found 
which  clearly  were  used  for  worship  in  the  Middle  Minoan  (III) 
and  Late  Minoan  periods.  The  most  complete  of  these  is  the 
"shrine  of  the  Double  Axes"  in  the  palace  at  Cnossos  (Late 
Minoan  III).1  It  is  a  small  room  about  1.50  m.  square,  divided 
into  three  parts  by  a  difference  of  level.  In  the  first  section  as 
one  enters  were  found  several  amphorae  and  other  vases ;  in  the 
second  section,  which  is  slightly  higher,  a  low  tripod  basin  of 
plaster  stood  in  the  centre  and  about  it  were  small  cups  and  bowls 
of  pottery ;  the  third  section,  which  was  narrower  and  consider- 
ably higher,  may  be  described  as  a  shelf,  on  which  stood  five  terra 
cotta  figurines,  a  small  double  axe  of  steatite,  a  Maltese  cross,  and 
two  "  horns  of  consecration  "  of  plaster,  each  with  a  socket  in 
which  perhaps  a  double  axe  once  stood.  These  objects  will 
demand  consideration  later. 

On  the  mainland  of  Greece  no  such  shrines  have  been  found 
in  Mycenaean  palaces.  A  pit  in  the  court  of  the  palace  at  Tiryns 
has  been  interpreted  as  a  pit  altar.  In  any  case  we  are  probably 
right  in  assuming  that  in  these  palaces  (and  perhaps  in  the  Cretan 
palaces)  sacrifices  were  offered  to  the  gods  in  the  court  or  in  the 
megaron  opening  off  the  court. 

Among  the  objects  used  in  worship  the  types  of  vases  are  not 
peculiar,  except  for  the  high,  slender,  funnel-shaped  vase  with 
handle  at  the  top.2  The  conch-shell  perhaps  was  used  to  summon 
either  the  gods  or  their  worshippers.  Liquid  offerings  were  pre- 
sented in  the  hollowed  top  of  a  stone  or  in  some  other  flat  basin. 
The  altar  itself  was  a  square  structure,  sometimes  represented  as 
having  one  part  higher  than  the  other ;  or  again,  it  takes  the  form 
of  a  pedestal  with  the  sides  cut  back  between  the  top  and  bottom. 

1  Brit.  School  Annual,  8  (1901)  95-105. 

2  Wide  in  Atk.  Mitth.  26  (1901)  247  f.;  Lagrange,  La  Crete  ancienne,  frontis- 
piece. 


THE   BEGINNINGS  OF   GREEK   RELIGION      203 


It  is  not  clear  whether  the  altar  was  actually  used  for  burnt  offer- 
ings or  whether  they  were  burned  (if  they  were  burned  at  all)  on 
the  ground  in  the  open  air.  In  any  case,  the  term  altar  has  often 
been  applied  to  what  is  essentially  a  pedestal  or  support. 

Two    monuments   representing    worship    actually   in   progress 
deserve   careful   study.     The   first,   a  sarcophagus    from    Hagia 
Triada,  is  described  and  partially  illustrated  by  Lagrange.1     On 
one    side  is   a   scene 
of       sacrifice :       two 
women    and    a    man 
blowing  the  flute  stand 
behind    a    table     on 
which  lies  a  bull  with 
blood     flowing     from 
his  throat  into  a  vessel 
below ;  then  follows  a 
priestess     holding     a 
basket    of     fruits    or 
cakes     above    a    low         FIG.  61.  — LIBATION  TABLES  AND  DISHES 
base,   upright   double 

axes  with  a  black  bird  perched  on  them,  and  a  building  on 
which  a  plant  is  growing.  On  the  other  side  offerings  are  brought 
and  placed  in  a  jar  between  double  axes  at  the  left ;  at  the  right 
small  calves  and  a  bowl  (or  boat)  are  brought  by  persons  in  a 
peculiar  dress  toward  a  tree  and  a  stiff  figure  (the  dead  ?)  stand- 
ing before  a  high  structure  (the  tomb?).  The  second  monument 
is  the  upper  half  of  a  small  stone  vase  (Fig.  62).  The  scene 
apparently  represents  a  procession  of  harvesters  carrying  long 
three-pronged  forks,  and  headed  by  a  man  in  a  richly  ornamented 
cloak  or  cape.2  It  is  difficult  to  explain  the  procession  other  than 
as  a  religious  act. 

There  is  no  evidence  that  idols  in  the  proper  sense  of  the  term, 
anthropomorphic  images  which  exemplified  a  god   to   his  wor- 

1  Lagrange,  La  Crete  ancienne,  61  f. 

2  Fowler  and  Wheeler,  Greek  Archaeology,  68. 


264 


GREEK  RELIGION 


shippers,  were  in  general  use  ;  in  fact  none  of  the  figurines  found 
in  these  shrines  are  unmistakably  gods,  and,  if  they  are  to  be  in- 
terpreted as  gods,  it  is  quite  unlikely  that  such  small  figures  were 
themselves  objects  of  worship.  Various  religious  symbols,  how- 
ever, may  be  pointed  out ;  representations  of  the  gods  appear  in 


FIG.  62.  —  STEATITE  VASE  FROM  HAGIA  TRIADA 

scenes  of  worship  depicted  on  seals,  etc. ;  and  the  question  as  to 
the  figurines  needs  further  consideration. 

Among  the  commonest  symbols  are  the  so-called  "horns  of 
consecration,"  two  horns  or  prongs  connected  by  a  depressed 
line.  In  scenes  of  worship  on  gems,  these  horns  stand  on  a  sort 
of  altar,  and  they  are  found  on  a  miniature  terra  cotta  altar  from 
the  Cnossos  "Temple  Repositories."1  In  the  shrine  described 
above  they  stand  on  the  upper  level  with  the  figurines.  A  steatite 

1  Lagrange,  ibid.,  83,  fig.  62;  Brit.  School  Ann.  g  (1902).  Cp.  the  Hebrew 
"  horns  of  the  altar,"  Exodus  27.  2. 


THE  BEGINNINGS  OF   GREEK  RELIGION      205 


fragment  shows  two  men  holding  out  bowls  before  a  wall  with 
several  pairs  of  horns.1  The  motive  is  repeated  several  times 
on  representations  of  an  architectural  fa?ade  which  suggests  a 
temple,  in  remains  both  from  Crete  and  Mycenae.2  With  it  are 
often  associated  a  pillar,  a  double  axe,  or,  at  Mycenae,  a  dove. 
The  only  interpreta- 
tion yet  suggested  is 
that  these  horns  are 
conventionalized  from 
"  boukrania,"  the 
skulls  of  sacrificed 
oxen  with  the  horns 
attached,  which  are 
found  in  scenes  of 
worship  in  this  period 
as  well  as  in  later 
times.  There  are 
many  indications  that 
the  bull  was  very  im- 
portant for  religion  in 
Crete. 

One  of  the  com- 
monest symbols  in 
this  period  was  the 
symbol  of  power,  the 
double  axe.  That  this 
was  often  used  with 
religious  significance 
no  one  can  question.  It  occurs  in  the  "  Shrine  of  the  Double 
Axes  "  at  Cnossos ;  many  small  bronze  axes  were  found  with 
some  miniature  shields  in  the  later  Minoan  deposits  of  the 
Dictaean  caves ;  a  double  axe  is  represented  in  scenes  of  worship 
on  gems ;  it  is  associated  both  with  "  horns  of  consecration  "  and 


FIG.  63. —  STEATITE  OFFERTORY  SCENE 

Two  figures  stand  holding  out  bowls  before  a  wall 
on  which  are  "  horns  of  consecration." 


1  Riit.  School  Ann.  g  (1902)   129. 

2  Ibid.  7  (1900)  fig.  9  ;  p.  207,  infra,  fig.  65. 


2O6 


GREEK   RELIGION 


with  the  representation  of  a  bull's  head  with  horns.  The  use 
of  the  double  axe  on  the  sarcophagus  from  Hagia  Triada  has 
already  been  mentioned.1  No  trace  has  been  found  in  Crete  of  a 
double  axe  which  was  suited  for  actual  use  as  a  weapon;  it  is 
simply  a  symbol  of  the  power  which  such  a  weapon  once  gave. 
It  is  most  naturally  understood  as  the  symbol  of  a  god  of  the 
heavens,  who  was  at  the  same  time  a  war-god. 

On  the  architectural  facades  mentioned  above  (p.  205)  a  pillar 
stands  between  the  horns  of  consecration  ;  usually  it  rests  on  a 
sort  of  altar  base.  While  it  is  possible  that  this  pillar  is  purely 
structural,  it  is  more  probable  that  it  had  some  meaning  for  reli- 
gion ;  in  this  case,  the  pillar  in  some  rooms  of  the  Cnossos  palace 
may  also  have  had  some  religious  signifi- 
cance. The  evidence  for  sacred  pillars 
or  stones  elsewhere  in  Crete  is  slight. 

That  sacred  trees  had  a  place  in  the 
early  Cretan  religion  cannot  be  disputed. 
A  fragment  of  a  steatite  vase  found  at 
Cnossos2  shows  a  fig  tree  in  an  enclosure 
with  horns  of  consecration  and  wor- 
shippers. On  gems  a  tree  or  branches 
from  trees  are  found  with  worshippers 
before  an  altar  with  horns.  Again,  on 
the  "  heraldic  gems  "  we  often  see  be- 
tween the  two  creatures  a  tree  instead 
of  a  human  figure ;  in  one  interesting 
case  the  creatures  are  watering  the  tree. 
It  is  possible  that  the  Gournia  shrine  was  once  occupied  by  a 
sacred  tree.3 

The  question  of  animal  "symbols"  is  complicated  by  the 
occurrence  on  the  gems,  just  mentioned,  of  creatures  half  animal, 
half  man,  and  in  several  instances  combining  parts  of  several  ani- 
mals. These  creatures  seem  to  indicate  worshippers,  or  rather 


FIG.  64.  —  GEM  FROM 
VAPHIO 

In  the  centre  sprays  of  a 
tree  rise  from  "  horns  of 
consecration  "  on  a  stand ; 
on  either  side  a  com- 
posite creature  is  holding 
up  a  pitcher. 


1  Cp,  supra,  p.  203. 


2  Evan*,  Jour.  Hell.  Stud.  14  (1901)  103. 


3  Hawes,  Gournia,  47  (B.E.W.). 


THE    BEGINNINGS   OF   GREEK   RELIGION      207 


attendants  in  worship,  who  might  be  either  human  beings  or  minor 
divine  beings.  The  last  explanation  seems  to  be  the  more  prob- 
able ;  in  that  case  we  should  regard  these  curious  creatures  as  the 
embodiment  of  lesser  spirits  whose  function  it  is  to  keep  up  the 
worship  of  the  gods.  That  spirits  should  be  conceived  in  animal 
forms  may  be  due  to  a  "  totemistic  "  range  of  ideas,  but  there  is 
no  clear  evidence  of  totemism  and  no  great  probability  that  it 
existed  in  Crete  or  in  Greece 
at  this  time.  Except  for  the 
serpent,  the  one  clear  instance 
of  a  "  sacred  animal "  is  the 
dove,  which  is  found  with  the 
horns  on  a  complicated  shrine 
facade,  again  on  a  female 
figure  which  the  Greeks  would 
have  called  Aphrodite,  and  in 
other  connections. 

While  no  real  idols  have 
been  found,  there  are  various 
representations  of  the  gods  on 
gems  and  in  painting,  and 
some  small  figures  which  may 
be  divinities.  The  small 
pottery  figures  found  in  such 
abundance  on  Mycenaean  sites 
have  no  doubt  some  religious 

significance.  They  represent  a  woman,  either  with  raised  hands 
or  with  her  hands  clasped  to  her  breast,  and  sometimes  holding  a 
child.  A  few  figures  of  a  woman  in  thin  gold  have  also  been 
found.  What  use  was  made  of  these  figures  is  not  clear.  In  a 
shrine  of  the  palace  at  Cnossos,  however,  there  were  found  three 
pottery  figures  of  a  type  somewhat  similar  to  the  pottery  figures  of 
Tiryns  and  Mycenae  ;  in  this  instance  the  "  horns,"  the  double  axe, 
and  the  vessels  found  with  them  indicate  that  they  played  a  part 
in  actual  worship.  A  dove  stands  on  the  head  of  one  of  the  figures. 


FIG.  65.  —  THIN  GOLD  PLAQUE  FROM 

MYCENAE 

Several  pairs  of  horns  and  three  double 
columns  are  seen  in  the  facade,  above 
which  are  two  doves. 


208 


GREEK   RELIGION 


At  Cnossos,  in  the  shrine  at  Gournia,  and  elsewhere  in  Crete, 
have  been  found  figures  of  pottery  or  faience,  dressed  in  tight 
bodice  and  full  flounced  skirt,  often  with  a  serpent  twined  about 
the  body.  It  has  been  customary  to  treat  at  least  the  figures  with 

dove  or  serpent  as  god- 
desses, while  others 
have  more  often  been 
regarded  as  worship- 
pers. Probably  all  are 
votive  offerings,  for 
there  is  no  reason  why 
figures  of  the  god  as 
well  as  of  the  wor- 
shipper should  not  be 
so  presented. 

The  scenes  on  gems 
and  seal  impressions 
include  both  divine 
and  human  beings. 
We  can  but  call  it  a 
goddess  who  stands  on 
a  mountain  flanked  by 
lions,  with  a  shrine 
at  the  left,  and  a  wor- 
shipper at  the  right.1 
Probably  it  is  a  god- 
dess with  a  lion,  and  a  god  with  a  lioness  on  two  impressions 
found  a  little  later.2  On  the  often  published  gem  from  Mycenae 
(Fig.  67),  there  is  little  question  that  the  figure  seated  under  a 
tree  is  a  goddess ;  her  attendants  may  be  nymphs  or  human 
beings.  The  figure  on  this  same  gem  with  double  shield  and 
spear,  which  also  occurs  in  a  wall  painting  at  Mycenae,  I  can  only 
regard  as  a  god,  possibly  the  god  of  the  heavens  as  a  war-god. 
Finally,  the  figure  of  a  woman  with  an  animal  in  each  hand, 

1  Brit.  School  Ann.  7  (1900)  29.  2  Ibid.,  9  (1902)  59. 


FIG.  66. —  FAIENCE  FIGURE  FROM  CNOSSOS 


THE   BEGINNINGS  OF   GREEK   RELIGION      209 

which  occurs  both  on  gems  and  in  other  forms  of  representa- 
tion, is  doubtless  a  goddess,  the  predecessor  of  the  so-called 
"  Persian  Artemis." 

It  is  very  noticeable  that  the  evidence  for  a  male  god  is  slight. 
The  important  divinity  of  the  Minoans  was  a  goddess,  a  goddess 
connected  with  the  earth  by  her  snake,  with  the  heavens  by  her 
dove.  So  soon  as  we  begin  to  deal  with  a  Hellenic  race  it  is  fair 
to  compare  her  with  the  Cretan  Rhea  (the  Mother,  perhaps 
Mother  Earth).  The  dove,  even  at 
this  early  day,  may  suggest  Aphrodite. 
The  goddess  of  wild  animals  would, 
for  such  a  race,  be  a  form  of  Artemis, 
the  queen  of  wild  beasts  and  the 
patron  of  hunters.  Finally  the  war- 
god  (perhaps  the  god  of  the  double 

axe)  would  of  course  be  the  god  of 
.      ,  -/I  ,          FIG-  67-  —  GOLD  RING  FROM 

the  heavens,  Zeus,  the  consort  or  the          MYCENAE  (.035  m.  long) 

son  of  the  earth  goddess.     The  ar- 
chaeological evidence  is  such  as  to  justify  the  belief  that  these  old 
Cretan  deities  would  be  received  by  invading  Greeks  and  wor- 
shipped under  their  Greek  names. 

4.  Early  Religion  as  inferred  from  the  Following  Period.  —  A 
second  main  line  of  argument  with  reference  to  early  Greek  reli- 
gion would  proceed  backward  from  the  known  to  the  unknown, 
from  cult  survivals  back  to  earlier  types  of  worship,  and  from  later 
religious  conceptions  back  to  their  probable  sources.  In  the 
present  state  of  our  knowledge  it  is  absolutely  impossible  to  assign 
survivals  of  early  worship  definitely  to  a  Mycenaean  age,  to  an 
earlier  Minoan  age,  or  to  wandering  Greek  tribes.  Rites  which 
have  to  do  with  the  care  of  flocks  may  go  back  to  nomad  tribes  ; 
unquestionably  with  the  development  of  civilization  increasing 
stress  was  laid  on  agriculture  and  agricultural  worship  ;  the  devel- 
opment of  city  life  with  its  stimulus  to  manufactures  and  commerce 
must  have  been  reflected  in  the  forms  of  religion.  In  particular, 
the  spirits  of  plant  life  and  the  ritual  of  sowing  and  reaping,  which 

GREEK    RELIGION-*  14 


210  GREEK  RELIGION 

Homer  absolutely  neglects,  can  be  no  new  creation  of  the  period 
following  Homer ;  they  are  the  background  for  the  religious  re- 
vival of  the  period  which  followed  Homer.  This  line  of  argument, 
however,  becomes  really  fruitful  for  the  epoch  under  consideration 
only  when  we  take  into  account  the  Homeric  poems. 

If  we  assume  as  the  generally  accepted  position  that  our  Iliad 
was  for  the  most  part  a  product  of  the  ninth  century  B.C.  in  Asia 
Minor,  that  the  epic  gives  us  older  "  Aeolic  "  material  in  an  Ionic 
form,  and  finally  that  the  Olympian  deities  are  a  Thessalian  prod- 
uct brought  from  the  mainland  of  Greece  in  a  migration  across 
the  Aegean,  the  epic  world  of  the  gods  in  approximately  the  epic 
form  is  thrown  back  of  1000  B.C.  But  this  epic  picture  marks  a 
definite  stage  at  the  end  of  a  long  period  of  development,  a  period 
which  ends  rather  later  than  the  close  of  the  Mycenaean  epoch. 
The  influence  of  epic  poetry  both  on  the  general  conception  of 
religion  and  man's  attitude  toward  the  gods  and  on  his  ideas  of 
particular  deities  can  hardly  be  overestimated.  Yet  it  seems  clear 
that  the  epic  lays  did  not  themselves  create  Zeus  and  Athena  and 
Poseidon ;  rather  they  presuppose  fairly  well  defined  ideas  of  these 
Olympian  gods  and  their  functions.  So  we  must  assume  for  the 
Mycenaean  epoch  —  at  least  in  northern  Greece  —  such  a  process 
of  evolution  in  religious  belief  as  will  end  in  the  Olympian  gods, 
such  forms  of  worship  as  are  not  out  of  harmony  with  this  belief. 

We  shall  assume,  then,  that  in  Thessaly  the  god  of  the  heavens, 
worshipped  on  Olympus  and  other  mountains,  was  not  so  much  a 
war-god  as  a  divine  ruler,  whose  nature  came  to  reflect  the  ideal 
of  the  human  king.  Each  community  had  worshipped  its  heaven- 
god,  source  of  light  and  rain  ;  now  as  the  communities  of  Thessaly 
or  Boeotia  or  the  Argolid  were  united  into  larger  units,  these 
heaven-gods  were  fused  into  one ;  as  the  ruler  and  his  court 
gained  in  splendor,  both  ruler  and  people  would  think  of  their 
greatest  god  as  the  ruler  among  the  gods. 

Even  apart  from  archaeological  remains,  the  Greek  calendar, 
with  its  emphasis  on  the  birth  and  death  of  vegetable  life,  would 
lead  us  to  assume  a  mother  goddess,  the  mother  earth,  who  is  the 


THE   BEGINNINGS  OF   GREEK   RELIGION      211 

ultimate  source  of  all  life.  Granted  that  each  community  had  such 
a  goddess,  the  consort  (and  sometimes  the  mother)  of  the  heaven- 
god,  we  need  not  be  surprised  that  she  develops  differently  in  dif- 
ferent localities.  As  the  communities  of  one  region  are  brought 
into  closer  touch  with  each  other,  and  as  their  civilization  is  en- 
riched by  elements  which  each  contributes  as  well  as  by  elements 
from  outside,  the  form  of  Rhea  appears  in  Crete,  the  form  of  Hera 
the  queen  in  the  Argive  plain,  while  other  forms  of  the  goddess 
(Leto,  Dione,  Themis,  Cybele,  Europa?,  Demeter,  etc.)  are  shaped 
in  other  regions.  From  goddesses  as  numerous  as  the  communi- 
ties which  worshipped  them,  but  of  one  general  type,  there  de- 
veloped a  relatively  small  number  of  goddesses,  each  a  definite 
many-sided  personality. 

Sometimes  closely  related  to  the  mother  of  vegetable  life,  no 
doubt  sometimes  distinct,  the  early  communities  of  Greece  wor- 
shipped a  queen  of  wild  beasts,  the  patron  of  the  chase;  the 
goddesses  of  this  type  gave  rise  to  the  Olympian  Artemis,  later  the 
exemplification  of  chastity  and  the  companion  of  Apollo.  And 
Apollo  was  one  outgrowth  of  the  shepherd-god  existing  in  each 
community,  himself  once  a  shepherd,  protecting  the  sheep  from 
wolves  (Apollo  Lykeios),  patron  of  the  music  and  the  games  that 
shepherds  loved.  Each  community  recognized  a  god  of  fire,  the 
patron  of  smiths,  though  here  again  some  regions  contributed 
much  more  than  others  to  the  making  of  Hephaestus.  The 
Aphrodite  of  later  religion  sometimes  included  elements  that 
came  from  the  old  mother  goddess ;  doubtless  many  of  the  early 
communities  recognized  in  addition  now  a  spirit  who  presided 
over  human  love,  now  a  goddess  of  family  life,  both  of  which  were 
taken  up  into  Aphrodite.  Every  seafaring  people  worshipped 
spirits  of  the  sea  ;  some  of  these  remained  in  local  worship  and  in 
myth  as  distinct  beings,  more  were  fused  in  Poseidon,  the  god 
whose  resistless  might  and  capricious  nature  expressed  the  general 
Greek  thought  of  the  sea. 

Of  the  process  here  described  the  epic  contains  scarcely  a 
trace  ;  on  the  other  hand,  there  is  hardly  one  centre  of  worship 


GREEK    RELIGION 


where  the  marks  of  it  are  not  to  be  discerned.  The  nature  of  the 
process  is  suggested  by  the  history  of  the  people.  Families  and 
tribes  in  much  the  same  stage  of  culture,  and  with  much  the  same 
range  of  ideas,  make  their  way  down  into  Greece.  In  the  My- 
cenaean age  larger  politi- 
cal and  social  commer- 
cial groups  are  gradually 
formed,  with  a  civilization 
richer  and  more  varied 
as  it  embraces  elements 
from  different  sources 
within  and  without  the 
country.  Similarly  we 
must  assume  that  the 
conception  of  nature- 
spirits,  of  souls,  of  "de- 
partmental gods  "  (gods 
of  the  chase,  of  the 
flocks,  of  seafaring,  etc.), 
was  originally  much  the 
same  for  different  com- 
munities, but  nowhere 
quite  the  same,  and 
that  in  the  larger  civili- 
zation which  developed 
the  gods  of  each  type 
grew  richer  and  more 
varied  with  elements 
drawn  from  different  com- 
munities, different  regions  in  the  Greek  world,  and  different  sources 
outside  of  Greece.  In  this  sense  the  Zeus  or  the  Poseidon  of  the 
epic  was  a  "  composite  photograph  "  of  earlier  Zeuses  and  Posei- 
dons.  The  process  was  one  of  synthesis  or  of  "  condensation,"  to 
use  the  word  of  Eduard  Meyer.1  But  if  the  Zeus  of  Homer  was  a 
1  Geschichte  d<s  Altertums,  2.  96. 


FIG.  68.  —  MARBLF.  RELIEF  FROM  THE 
PEIRAEUS  (in  Berlin) 

Worshippers  approaching  a  serpent  (Zeus 
Meilichios). 


THE   BEGINNINGS  OF  GREEK  RELIGION      213 

composite  photograph  of  earlier  forms  of  the  god,  this  is  only 
half  the  story.  Each  cult  of  Zeus  continued  to  emphasize  those 
peculiar  characteristics  of  the  god  which  it  had  always  emphasized, 
in  addition  to  the  characteristics  generally  adopted,  with  the  result 
that  the  Zeus  of  each  cult  remained  individual  and  was  known  in 
worship  by  an  added  individual  name.  Zeus  Lykaios  worshipped 
with  human  sacrifice  in  Arcadia,  Zeus  Trophonios  worshipped  in  a 
Boeotian  cave,  Zeus  Meilichios  conceived  now  in  human  form,  now 
in  the  form  of  a  serpent,  are  extreme  examples  of  this  individual- 
ization  preserved  in  worship.  Each  local  cult  modified  the  con- 
ception of  Zeus  for  a  narrower  or  wider  region  according  to  the 
extent  of  its  influence  ;  the  god  of  each  local  cult  was  more  or  less 
modified  by  the  general  Greek  conception  of  Zeus.  Finally,  it 
should  be  noted  that  there  were  some  local  gods  which  were  never 
brought  under  any  of  the  general  Greek  gods,  and  others,  like  the 
Zeus  Amphiaraus  of  Oropus,  who  were  thought  of  as  distinct  be- 
ings more  often  than  as  forms  of  Zeus.  The  "  heroes  "  were  often 
local  gods  whose  cult  was  of  such  a  character  that  it  was  more 
natural  to  bring  them  under  the  category  of  chthonic  gods  and 
souls  than  to  connect  them  with  any  of  the  Olympian  rulers.1 

It  has  been  pointed  out  that  almost  every  god  in  worship  has 
two  names,  of  which  the  first  is  ordinarily  one  of  the  epic  series, 
the  second  a  more  individual  name.2  So  far  as  the  history  of 
geographical  names  and  names  of  persons  in  Greece  has  been 
ca'rried,  it  appears  that  a  large  percentage  of  these  names  had  once 
some  religious  significance.  It  is  clear  that  names  derived  from 
the  divine  names  in  use  in  the  epic  (Apollonios,  Athenaios, 
Dionysios)  are  relatively  late,  usually  far  later  in  their  formation 
than  the  epic  itself.  On  the  other  hand,  names  of  persons  and 
places  whose  formation  points  to  an  earlier  epoch  are  many  of 
them  connected  with  the  "  epithet  names  "  of  the  gods,  the  second 
of  the  two  names  used  in  worship,  e.g.  Alalkomenai,  Chryse,  Delos, 
Kolias,  Orthosia,  Potniai,  Sosandra  (but  compare  Athenai,  Her- 
mione).  The  inference  is,  not  that  epithet  names  are  necessarily 
1  Cp.  supra,  p.  165  £  2  Cp.  supra,  p.  145. 


214  GREEK   RELIGION 

older  than  the  names  used  in  the  epic,  but  that  many  epithet 
names  do  go  back  to  the  earliest  period  in  Greek  religion  of  which 
we  have  any  trace,  and  that  at  this  time  they  were  the  personal 
names  of  the  local  gods.  That  epithet  names  were  always  so 
important  in  prayer,  points  in  the  same  direction. 

Although  the  processes  which  I  have  described  were  always 
going  on  in  Greece,  they  have  been  discussed  here  because  they 
are  important  only  for  the  earlier  epochs  and  in  particular  for  the 
Mycenaean  age.  Such  was  the  influence  of  the  epic  that  its  stand- 
ards tended  to  fix  the  conceptions  of  the  gods  and  in  large  degree 
to  put  an  end  to  that  phase  of  religious  development  which  has 
been  under  discussion.  So  far  as  forms  of  worship  are  concerned, 
the  same  influences  were  at  work.  However,  the  possible  range 
of  original  variation  was  less,  and  the  final  unification  was  never  so 
marked  as  in  the  case  of  the  gods,  while  the  effect  of  the  epic  in 
checking  the  process  of  development  was  less  important.  In  dis- 
cussing the  following  period,  it  will  appear  that  the  epic  helped 
the  spread  of  the  communion-meal  sacrifice,  especially  in  the  great 
city  festivals.  Still  I  find  no  satisfactory  evidence  that  the  period 
preceding  the  epic  was  characterized  by  the  other  main  type  of 
Greek  worship  (whole  burnt  offerings  of  animals  ordinarily  black, 
sacrificed  at  night  to  chthonic  gods)  ;  nor  is  it  clear  that  the 
worship  of  this  period  was  primarily  a  worship  of  "aversion."1 
The  subject  may  be  dismissed  with  the  statements  (i)  that  local 
forms  of  worship  were  so  tenacious  that  they  yielded  only  slowly 
to  any  universalizing  influence,  and  (2)  that  probably  the  com- 
munion-meal sacrifice  had  already  become  in  some  measure  a 
general  form  of  worship  by  the  time  of  the  migrations  which  car- 
ried the  Olympian  gods  to  Asia  Minor,  so  that  it  could  be  adopted 
by  the  epic  as  a  form  universally  applicable. 

1  Harrison,  Prolegomena  to  the  Study  of  Greek  Religion,  9 ;  Gruppe,  Griech. 
Mythologie  und  Religionsgeschichte,  758  f. 


CHAPTER   II 
RELIGION   IN   THE  GREEK   "MIDDLE  AGES" 

1.  Changes  in  the  Period  1100-700  B.C.  — The  name  "  middle 
ages  "  is  applied  to  that  period  of  European  history  between  the 
decay  of  an  older  civilization  and  the  rise  of  new  intellectual  and 
spiritual  life  in  the  Renaissance.  In  this  same  sense  it  fairly  de- 
scribes the  period  between  the  decay  of  the  Mycenaean  civilization 
and  the  rise  of  that  new  life  which  we  may  call  Hellenic.  The 
downfall  of  these  early  kingdoms  and  their  culture  was  hastened, 
as  in  the  case  of  the  later  European  parallel,  by  a  shifting  of  races 
which  brought  rude,  vigorous  peoples  into  contact  with  the  worn- 
out  remnants  of  the  earlier  civilization ;  yet  in  each  case  decay 
within,  rather  than  attack  from  without,  was  the  real  cause  of 
change.  In  Greece  we  have  reason  to  think  that  mountain 
tribes  from  Epirus  made  their  way  into  the  Thessalian  plains,  with 
a  resulting  shift  of  the  population  southward  into  the  Peloponnese 
and  eastward  into  Asia  Minor.  The  evidence  for  this  change 
varies  greatly  in  different  localities.  In  Laconia  the  control  of  the 
country  by  a  relatively  small  band  of  "  Dorians  "  left  its  mark  till 
long  after  Greece  lost  its  independence ;  while  in  Attica  the 
people  claimed  to  be  autochthonous.  The  connection  of  the 
Aeolians  in  Asia  Minor  with  Thessaly,  of  lonians  with  Euboea  and 
Attica,  of  the  southern  Greek  cities  in  Asia  Minor  with  the 
Peloponnese,  can  readily  be  traced. 

The  first  result  of  these  changes  was  a  breaking  down  of  the  old 
kingdoms,  a  decay  of  the  old  cities,  and  a  loss  of  many  of  the 
earlier  arts.  But  on  the  whole  these  four  centuries  must  have 
been  a  period  of  reconstruction.  Except  in  a  few  instances  the 

215 


216  GREEK   RELIGION 

old  and  the  new  elements  in  the  population  were  fused  into  one, 
to  the  advantage  of  both  parties.  Out  of  political  confusion  there 
came  first  a  sort  of  feudalism  attached  to  the  soil ;  "  princes  "  rich 
in  flocks  and  fields,  holding  rough  court  in  farmyard  palaces,  were 
the  knights  of  the  epic.  The  development  of  trade,  and  that  in 
Greek  hands,  brought  with  it  the  rise  of  such  cities  as  Chalcis 
and  Corinth.  According  to  the  Homeric  picture  of  Ithaca  the 
"  princes  "  gathered  frequently  in  the  capital  city.  In  Attica,  as 
in  other  regions,  the  control  of  the  country  was  gradually  centred 
in  one  city.  In  this  period  also  we  find  trading  cities  sending  out 
colonies  along  the  lines  of  commerce  as  far  as  the  Black  Sea  in  the 
northeast  and  Cyrene  and  Sicily  and  Marseilles  in  the  west.  With 
one  splendid  exception  the  age  is  barren  of  literature  and  art; 
the  Greek  epic  is  a  product  of  the  Greek  middle  ages. 

The  history  of  religion  reflects  these  social  changes.  The 
shifting  of  population  tended  on  the  whole  to  increase  the  number 
of  cult  centres,  for  the  intruders  brought  with  them  their  own  gods 
and  quite  generally  they  also  adopted  the  worship  which  they 
found.  A  cursory  glance  at  a  map  of  Greek  cult  centres  would 
reveal  the  shifting  southward  of  many  forms  of  worship  belonging 
in  the  north.  This  process  in  itself  would  help  the  spread  of  the 
"  Olympian  "  gods,  the  gods  of  epic,  for  the  elements  of  this  phase 
of  religion  no  doubt  belonged  with  the  name  Olympus  in  Thessaly  ; 
and  in  general,  names  brought  from  the  north  would  be  commonly 
recognized  names  which  the  wandering  epic  bards  would  find 
adapted  to  their  purposes.  At  the  same  time  many  less  important 
names  would  be  cut  off  from  worship  by  this  very  shifting,  cele- 
brated names  that  remained  in  myth  at  the  disposal  of  the  poet. 
The  gods  of  agriculture,  on  the  other  hand,  remained  as  gods  of  the 
land,  worshipped  that  they  might  bless  the  crops  of  that  locality, 
but  not  readily  adapted  to  the  purposes  of  myth  or  poetry.  With 
the  development  of  trade  and  convnerce  by  sea,  Poseidon  gained 
rapidly  in  importance  ;  Apollo,  god  of  flocks  in  central  Greece, 
was  adopted  as  their  patron  by  many  of  the  Dorian  communities, 
though  perhaps  his  earlier  connections  were  rather  with  lonians ; 


RELIGION    IN   THE   GREEK   "MIDDLE   AGES"     217 

Zeus  of  Olympus  made  good  his  position  as  king  of  gods  and  father 
of  men. 

Two  points  in  the  religious  changes  deserve  special  notice,  the 
form  of  religion  in  the  new  city  life,  and  the  religious  "  Amphic- 
tyones."  The  older  cult  centres,  especially  those  which  persisted 
through  this  period,  were  not  generally  in  centres  of  population ; 
they  were  not  chosen  for  the  convenience  of  men,  but  where  men 
could  find  the  gods  —  by  some  spring  with  luxuriant  vegetation 
about  it,  in  caves  or  on  mountain  tops,  in  spots  where  men  for 
whatever  reason  had  felt  some  manifestation  of  the  presence  of 
the  gods.  With  the  new  development  of  city  life,  the  old  cults  of 
that  locality  persisted,  the  worship  of  the  families  who  came  to  the 
city  was  established,  and  very  commonly  branches  of  the  impor- 
tant cults  in  all  the  region  were  located  in  the  city.  The  purpose 
of  the  branches  was  in  a  measure  to  obtain  the  blessing  of  such 
gods  for  the  city,  but  even  more  in  order  that  the  customary  wor- 
shippers of  these  gods  might  still  worship  them  conveniently  and 
without  repeated  pilgrimages  to  the  old  shrines.  So  we  find  in  the 
city  of  Athens  temples  to  the  Dionysus  of  Eleutherae,  to  the  Arte- 
mis of  Brauron,  to  the  Demeter  of  Eleusis,  not  to  mention  less 
important  instances  of  the  process  in  question. 

Again,  we  find  so-called  Amphictyones,  groups  of  communities 
who  unite  in  worship  at  some  important  centre.  The  Tetrapolis 
of  the  plain  of  Marathon  was  a  small  group  essentially  religious. 
Along  the  east  coast  of  Greece  from  Prasiae  in  Laconia  north  to 
Athens  and  Orchomenos,  the  cities  joined  in  the  worship  of 
Poseidon  on  the  island  of  Calauria;  in  Boeotia  another  group 
of  towns  worshipped  Poseidon  at  Onchestos ;  and  the  temple  of 
Poseidon  at  Mycale  was  the  centre  of  a  similar  group  of  twelve 
cities  in  Asia  Minor.  Delos  was  the  centre  of  Apollo  worship, 
first  for  the  near-by  islands,  then  for  all  the  Ionic  world;  thus  a 
hexapolis  in  Asia  Minor  shared  the  worship  of  Apollo  Triopios 
near  Cnidos.  A  sacred  alliance  bound  together  cities  of  Elis  and 
Messene  in  the  worship  of  Zeus  at  Olympia.  Most  important  of 
all  in  this  period  was  the  Amphictyony  of  north  and  central 


2i8  GREEK   RELIGION 

Greece  which  centred  about  the  worship  of  Demeter  at  Anthela 
in  the  Pass  of  Thermopylae.  Some  of  these  religious  groups  lost 
their  significance  later ;  others,  like  the  Amphictyony  which  met 
at  Thermopylae,  and  the  Delian  worship  of  Apollo,  became  vital 
factors  in  the  history  of  Greece. 

The  influence  of  social  changes  on  forms  of  worship  is  evident 
in  at  least  one  direction.  From  the  custom  in  Sparta,  where  alone 
it  persisted  during  later  centuries,  we  are  led  to  infer  that  it  was 
the  practice  of  the  Dorian  tribes  to  eat  the  principal  meal  of  the 
day  together  rather  than  separately  by  families.  Naturally  the 
meal  was  the  centre  of  any  worship  which  involved  animal  sacrifice 
for  food.  The  Dorian  practice  would  necessarily  help  to  extend 
this  type  of  sacrifice,  which  involved  a  common  meal.  It  was, 
moreover,  a  type  of  sacrifice  suited  to  the  descriptions  of  the  epic 
poet ;  nor  was  any  form  of  worship  better  adapted  to  the  needs 
of  the  rising  cities  than  the  procession  and  the  communion  meal. 
Thus,  although  the  local  forms  of  worship  ordinarily  persisted  at 
each  cult  centre,  the  common  meal,  which  became  for  religion  the 
communion  meal,  was  from  this  time  on  regarded  as  the  normal 
type  of  Greek  worship. 

2.  Religion  in  the  Homeric  Poems.  — The  one  monument  of 
this  period,  the  source  of  our  knowledge  of  its  civilization,  is  found 
in  the  Homeric  poems.  The  Iliad  is  ordinarily  assigned  to  the 
ninth  century  B.C.,  the  Odyssey  to  the  eighth  ;  yet  every  student  of 
the  poems  recognizes  that  the  language  and  the  verse,  if  not  the 
picture  of  social  and  political  life,  are  the  outcome  of  a  long  pro- 
cess of  development.  If  the  poems  were  for  the  most  part  com- 
pleted in  somewhat  their  present  form  by  700  B.C.,  the  beginning 
of  epic  poetry  must  be  sought  in  the  later  days  of  Mycenaean 
culture,  or  early  in  the  "  middle  ages,"  while  the  influence  of 
that  culture  was  still  felt  in  many  localities. 

The  account  of  religion  and  other  phases  of  culture  in  the  epic 
is  not  wholly  different  from  the  nature  of  the  language.  The  epic 
language  was  never  spoken,  yet  it  includes  no  "  manufactured  " 
forms  or  grammatical  usages ;  it  is  so  consistent  that  it  is  difficult 


RELIGION    IN   THE   GREEK   "MIDDLE   AGES"     219 

to  trace  any  evolution  in  assumed  strata  of  the  poem  ;  it  came  to 
be  understood  all  over  Greece  where  it  was  difficult  for  those  who 
spoke  one  dialect  to  understand  those  who  spoke  dialects  not 
closely  related.  We  are  justified  in  assuming  that  the  picture  of 
religion,  in  like  manner,  does  not  give  the  religion  of  any  one 
place  or  one  period,  though  it  includes  no  absolutely  new  crea- 
tions of  the  poet;  that  its  consistency  is  due  to  the  poet's  un- 
conscious art;  that  it  was  accepted  and  understood  all  over 
Greece,  where  the  worship  of  one  cult  centre  would  ordinarily  be 
foreign  to  that  of  another  cult  centre. 

On  this  assumption  it  might  fairly  be  claimed  that  the  account 
of  religion  presented  in  the  epic  has  no  place  itself  in  a  history 
of  Greek  religion,  for  it  is  not  a  real  phase  of  that  history.  Just 
as  epic  language  is  not  the  language  of  conversation  at  any  par- 
ticular time  or  place,  but  is  in  one  sense  an  artifical  product,  so 
epic  religion  is  in  that  same  sense  artificial.  But  it  is  historic  in 
the  same  sense  that  the  language  is  historic.  In  the  first  place, 
the  elements  which  it  selects  and  combines  (we  may  add,  uncon- 
sciously) are  every  one  of  them  drawn  from  actual  worship  and 
belief.  Secondly,  it  is  the  product  of  a  long  period  in  which  the 
epic  was  in  actual  touch  with  real  religion,  modifying  that  religion 
and  being  modified  by  it.  Nor  should  it  ever  be  forgotten  that 
the  epic,  after  it  was  completed,  was  one  of  the  most  important 
factors  in  making  the  later  religious  history  of  Greece. 

The  influence  of  the  epic  will  be  considered  later  as  occasion 
offers.  The  other  two  points  mentioned  in  the  preceding  para- 
graph demand  a  word  more  before  we  proceed.  The  elements 
with  which  the  epic  picture  of  religion  began,  the  main  lines  in 
its  account  of  the  gods  and  of  worship,  date  back  at  least  to  the 
end  of  the  Mycenaean  epoch.  We  have  already  pointed  out  that 
Zeus  and  Poseidon,  Apollo  and  Athena  were  gods  of  Thessaly, 
Olympian  gods,  before  the  migrations  to  Asia  Minor.  The  com- 
munion-meal sacrifice  and  the  libation  to  the  gods  undoubtedly 
existed  as  forms  of  worship  from  very  early  times,  though  their 
universality  may  be  questioned.  Divination  by  omens,  especially 


220  GREEK  RELIGION 

omens  from  birds,  was  adopted,  not  invented,  by  bards.  On  the 
other  hand,  it  is  clear  that  there  were  countless  forms  of  divination 
and  worship,  not  to  speak  of  magic  rites,  which  the  poets  passed 
by  without  mention. 

And  the  very  fact  that  the  epic  is  the  product  of  a  long  period 
during  which  its  forms  were  gradually  fixed,  a  period  also  in  which 
political  changes  had  brought  strong  solvents  to  bear  on  social 
and  religious  life,  leads  us  to  look  for  constant  reciprocal  influ- 
ences between  actual  religion  and  epic  religion.  The  migrations 
to  Asia  Minor  had  deprived  religious  practices  of  the  strong  sup- 
port which  their  proper  locality  always  lends;  to  this  extent 
religious  practice  in  Asia  Minor  was  much  more  amenable  to  epic 
influence  than  language.  It  lay  in  the  very  nature  of  the  epic  to 
draw  a  picture  of  life  which  would  be  universally  understood ; 
whatever  the  elements  with  which  it  started,  all  that  was  not 
understood  necessarily  tended  to  give  way  to  what  men  would 
understand,  and  that  up  to  the  time  when  the  epic  product  was 
finally  fixed.  In  particular,  the  epic  was  sung  at  the  banquets  of 
"princes,"  feudal  knights  of  the  soil.  The  banquet  occasion 
undoubtedly  tended  to  make  it  less  serious,  more  picturesque, 
more  free  in  its  treatment  of  religion ;  and  its  conception  of 
human  life  was  profoundly  influenced  by  the  life  and  standards  of 
those  whose  tastes  the  bards  sought  to  satisfy.  It  was  this  poetry 
of  the  feudal  banquet  hall  which  was  shaping  and  universalizing 
religious  belief,  -not  to  say  religious  practice,  all  through  the  Greek 
middle  ages. 

Some  account  of  the  Homeric  conceptions  of  the  gods  and  of 
religious  practice  has  already  been  given  for  the  very  reason  that 
these  poetic  conceptions  were  real  forces  determining  later  reli- 
gious history.1  In  referring  to  them  again  it  is  my  purpose  to  point 
more  in  detail  the  influence  of  epic  poetry  in  the  process  by 
which  these  conceptions  were  shaped. 

(i)  The  gods  of  Homer,  those  superhuman  persons  whose 
agency  men  constantly  feel,  are  conceived  in  human  moulds.  In 
i  Cp.  supra,  p.  139  £ 


RELIGION    IN   THE   GREEK   "MIDDLE   AGES"     22! 

form,  in  thought  and  feeling,  in  the  modes  of  their  activity,  they 
are  simply  greater  men  ;  even  the  limitations  of  space  and  time 
are  felt  by  the  gods  only  less  than  by  men.  Men  do  not  live  in  a 
world  of  mechanical  cause  and  effect,  a  world  under  natural  law ; 
rather,  what  they  do  not  themselves  cause,  is  caused  by  the  gods, 
and  what  the  gods  cause  is  accomplished  in  a  manner  all  but 
human.  Such  a  belief  involves  a  multiplicity  of  gods,  yet  the 
important  gods  of  the  epic  are  very  few  ;  Zeus,  Apollo,  and  Athena 
take  the  first  rank,  then  come  Poseidon  and  Hera ;  Hephaestus, 
Ares,  Aphrodite,  and  many  others,  are  in  the  background. 

In  contrast  with  such  gods,  the  gods  of  worship  had  been  and 
continued  to  be  more  or  less  vague  powers,  limited  to  the  region 
where  they  were  worshipped  and  without  a  sharply  defined  func- 
tion to  which  their  activity  was  confined.  The  poets  who  made 
the  greater  gods  actors  in  the  story  limited  their  functions  at  the 
same  time  that  they  entirely  removed  them  from  any  definite  local 
sphere.  It  has  been  said  that  in  depicting  the  character  of  the 
gods  the  epic  poets  performed  a  greater  task  than  in  depicting 
the  character  of  men.  It  was  a  double  task,  to  emphasize  the 
human  nature  of  the  gods,  as  it  were  to  bring  them  down  from 
heaven  to  earth,  and  to  give  them  individual  character  and  per- 
sonality. In  the  action  of  the  poems,  in  the  development  of  the 
relation  of  the  gods  to  each  other  and  to  particular  men,  this 
character  and  personality  found  expression.  The  nature  of  the 
audience  and  the  aims  of  the  poet  determined  the  character  of 
the  gods.1  The  bickerings  of  the  gods,  their  intrigues  among 
themselves,  their  care  for  their  favorite  heroes  —  the  lameness  of 
Hephaestus,  the  efforts  of  Hera  and  Poseidon  to  deceive  Zeus, 
the  wounding  of  Aphrodite  by  Diomedes,  the  overthrow  of  the 
impetuous  Ares  on  the  battlefield  —  would  amuse  an  after-dinner 
audience.  Yet  though  such  gods  inspired  far  less  awe,  though 
their  regime  was  on  the  whole  made  rather  comfortable  for  man, 
there  were  elements  of  progress  along  with  elements  of  decline. 
Under  the  influence  of  the  epic,  the  gods  of  worship  cam.e,  to  be 

1  Cp.  supra,  p.  140  f, 


222  GREEK   RELIGION 

regarded  as  more  universal  in  their  reach  and  far  more  human  in 
their  nature  ;  that  the  gods  could  sympathize  with  men,  is  a  belief 
due  in  large  measure  to  the  epic. 

In  a  word,  the  early  bards  found  some  gods,  more  widely 
recognized  than  others,  about  whom  simple  stories  or  myths  had 
long  been  gathering ;  these  they  detached  entirely  from  worship 
to  make  them  dramatis  personae.  The  character  of  the  epic 
god-heroes  was  shaped  to  gratify  and  amuse  the  banquet  audi- 
ences of  feudal  "  princes,"  on  the  principle  that  gods  are  made  in 
the  image  of  man.  Both  the  wonderful  charm  of  the  poetry  and 
the  humanity  of  these  divine  beings  made  the  epic  a  determining 
factor  for  later  belief  in  the  gods. 

(2)  Worship.  —  If  the  principle  of  survival  deserves  any  cre- 
dence, the  variety  of  local  worship  in  later  times  indicates  that 
the  Homeric  picture  of  the  banquet  sacrifice,  libation,  and  prayer 
is  anything  but  a  complete  picture  of  worship  at  any  one  period 
or  locality.  The  most  important  feature  of  local  worship,  the  re- 
curring festival,  is  mentioned  two  or  three  times,  but  plays  no  part 
in  the  poems.  Instead  of  numerous  forms  of  sacrifice  with  differ- 
ent intent,  never  twice  exactly  alike  at  different  shrines,  epic  sac- 
rifice is  reduced  to  one  simple  pattern.  The  knights  of  the  Iliad 
sacrifice  cattle,  the  suitors  of  the  Odyssey  cattle  or  sheep,  the 
swineherd  pigs,  whenever  flesh  is  wanted  for  eating :  the  animal 
is  consecrated  to  the  gods  and  thigh  pieces  are  burned  on  the  altar 
with  libation  and  prayers ;  the  very  language  of  the  description 
is  stereotyped  as  though  the  whole  matter  had  been  fixed  early 
in  the  history  of  epic  poetry.  The  libation  of  wine  as  a  form 
of  worship,  both  at  the  banquet  and  at  other  times  in  connection 
with  prayer,  is  the  simplest  possible  material  recognition  of  the 
gods.  Its  meaning  for  the  epic  is  as  simple  as  its  form  ;  the  gods 
get  a  share  of  man's  delight  in  the  wine ;  the  revenue  tax  thus 
paid,  man  may  drink  without  fear.  Ordinary  sacrifice  may  simi- 
larly be  regarded  as  a  tax *  which  insures  to  man  his  enjoyment 
of  the  remainder,  for  epic  gods  have  much  in  common  with  human 

1  Cp.  Introduction,  p.  36  f. ;  Keller,  Homeric  Society,  124  f. 


RELIGION   IN   THE   GREEK  "MIDDLE   AGES"     223 

rulers.  Extra  sacrifices  might  serve  to  pacify  an  angry  god,  or 
to  insure  the  favor  of  the  gods  for  some  undertaking  in  the  future. 
Yet  even  in  the  epic  the  gods  are  somewhat  more  than  human 
rulers ;  the  sense  of  awe  and  the  desire  for  communion  are  not 
wholly  absent ;  and  in  so  far  as  Zeus  or  Apollo  or  Athena  is  a  god, 
sacrifice  is  more  than  the  payment  of  a  tax.  Moreover  the  other 
forms  of  worship,  which  may  be  traced  back,  some  of  them  to  the 
seventh  century  B.C.,  have  little  or  nothing  to  do  with  this  idea 
of  a  divine  tax  on  human  possessions  and  pleasures.  We  may 
conclude  that  the  Homeric  banquet-sacrifice  and  libation  are 
selected  from  various  forms  of  worship  and  brought  into  line  with 
the  other  religious  conceptions  of  the  epic. 

Turning  to  prayer,  with  related  vows  and  oaths,  we  find  the 
conception  of  the  divine  ruler  very  frankly  recognized.  At  the 
same  time  we  may  fairly  ask  whether  the  connection  of  the  indi- 
vidual with  the  god  to  whom  he  prays  is  not  represented  as  some- 
thing more  intimate  than  that  between  subject  and  king.  There 
is  no  question  that  the  intimacy  of  this  relation  is  emphasized  in 
many  forms  of  actual  worship. 

Granted  that  the  epic  drew  its  material  from  existing  religious 
practice,  along  what  lines  was  this  material  modified?  In  the 
first  place,  anything  like  magic  or  mysticism  was  omitted  from 
the  clear  rational  atmosphere  of  the  poet's  world.  That  Athena 
could  make  Odysseus  now  old,  now  young  in  appearance  by  a 
touch  of  her  wand  is  not  magic,  but  divine  power.  The  changes 
of  Proteus  and  the  magic  power  of  Circe  belong  to  semidivine 
beings  outside  the  proper  home  of  epic  heroes.  Either  the  audi- 
ence or  the  bards,  or  both,  tended  to  hold  a  rationalistic  view  of 
the  lower  religious  practices  of  the  people ;  the  Olympian  gods 
were  exalted  at  the  expense  of  any  worship  which  they  could  not 
absorb.  Secondly,  the  bards  chose  simple  forms  of  worship  which 
would  be  universally  intelligible  to  the  neglect  of  all  that  was  local 
and  peculiar.  In  fact,  the  more  religious  side  of  local  worship 
would  often  be  passed  over  in  the  interest  of  that  more  simple, 
more  splendid  Olympian  world.  The  motive  which  led  to  this 


224  GREEK   RELIGION 

principle  of  selection  was  the  necessity  that  poems  sung  from  place 
to  place  should  appeal  to  many  different  audiences.  Thirdly,  the 
choice  of  the  banquet-sacrifice  was  most  natural  in  the  case  of 
poems  sung  to  gratify  those  who  had  gathered  for  a  banquet. 
In  this  way  religious  worship  was  brought  into  closest  harmony 
with  the  mood  of  the  hearers.  Finally,  it  should  be  noted  that 
the  meaning  of  worship  is  interpreted  in  connection  with  the 
meaning  assigned  to  the  Olympian  gods.  Sacrifice  and  prayer 
are  offered  in  most  instances  to  Zeus,  who  is  supreme.  The  gods 
are  universal  and  worship  is  of  a  universal  type,  though  wherever 
the  gods  have  favorite  haunts  there  are  local  centres  of  worship. 
The  gods  are  divine  rulers  meeting  to  feast  with  Zeus,  as  human 
princes  met  to  feast  with  Menelaus  at  Sparta  or  with  Agamemnon 
before  Troy ;  worship  is  conceived  as  homage  paid  to  divine 
rulers.  The  happy  life  of  the  gods  is  reflected  in  the  joyousness 
of  worship.  The  rites  of  riddance,  practised  to  drive  away  evil 
or  dangerous  spirits,  could  find  no  recognition  in  a  world  wholly 
under  the  rule  of  these  beneficent  gods. 

(3)  The  same  principle  may  be  more  briefly  stated  in  the  case 
of  divination.  In  a  world  where  all  that  occurs  is  the  direct  act 
of  the  gods,  peculiar  occurrences  will  be  regarded  as  having  pecu- 
liar significance,  while  the  ordinary  course  of  events  will  reveal  the 
purposes  of  the  gods.  Dreams  all  come  from  the  gods,  false 
dreams  through  the  ivory  gate,  true  dreams  through  the  gate  of 
horn.1  Chance  words  or  the  casting  of  lots  are  determined  by  the 
gods.  Special  emphasis  is  laid  on  the  phenomena  of  the  heavens, 
thunder,  lightning,  etc.,  and  on  the  flight  of  birds,  for  these  belong 
to  the  sphere  of  the  gods,  out  of  human  reach.  In  a  world  where 
gods  care  especially  for  individuals,  the  interpretation  of  signs 
depends  on  men  to  whom  the  gods  have  granted  this  peculiar 
gift.  There  is  abundant  evidence  that  in  these  matters  the  epic 
poets  invented  nothing,  although  they  selected  material  adapted  to 
their  purposes,  and  interpreted  it  in  connection  with  their  scheme 
of  the  universe. 

1  Cp.  supra,  p.  51. 


RELIGION    IN   THE   GREEK   "MIDDLE  AGES"     225 

(4)  The  conception  of  death,  burial,  and  the  world  of  souls  in  the 
epic  has  received  most  divergent  interpretations.1  Why  was  cre- 
mation practised  more  than  burial  ?  Why  were  souls  mere  shades, 
safe  in  Hades,  when  before  and  after  Homer  the  spirits  of  the  dead 
were  worshipped?  The  traces  of  an  earlier  worship  of  the  dead 
are  found  in  some  of  the  rites  of  burial  and  in  a  few  scattered 
allusions.  The  practice  of  cremation  undoubtedly  favored  the 
idea  that  the  souls  were  finally  laid  to  rest  in  a  world  cut  off  from 
living  man.  Perhaps  the  feudal  princes  of  the  poet's  audience  had 
lost  a  vivid  belief  in  the  power  of  souls  to  bless  or  curse.  In  any 
case  the  tendency  of  the  epic  to  neglect  every  for.n  of  worship 
which  did  not  assimilate  with  the  rational  worship  of  Olympian 
rulers  came  into  play  at  this  point.  Over  against  ghost-gods  of 
the  people  were  set  Olympian  gods  fit  for  princes  to  worship,  and 
the  whole  influence  of  epic  poetry  was  exerted  in  favor  of  the  latter.2 

As  to  the  general  character  of  this  epic  picture  of  religion,  very 
different  views  have  been  expressed.  Considering  the  large  num- 
ber of  animals  offered  in  sacrifice,  a  recent  writer3  finds  the 
Homeric  Greeks  "an  intensely  religious  people,  by  their  whole 
philosophy  of  life  committed  to  the  constant  service  of  the  super- 
natural powers."  At  first  sight  the  light  manner  of  treating  the 
gods  and  the  emphasis  on  their  foibles  would  lead  to  a  view  directly 
opposite  to  this.  The  two  standpoints  are  in  a  manner  recon- 
ciled by  assuming  that  the  early  Greeks  were  sincerely  devoted 
to  the  worship  of  their  gods,  but  that  the  gods  of  the  epic,  detached 
entirely  from  local  centres  of  worship,  were  handled  by  the  poets 
with  the  utmost  freedom.  The  conception  of  worship  is  exceed- 
ingly simple  and  direct.  Men  are  in  the  hands  of  the  gods ;  the 
gods,  like  greater  human  rulers,  love  the  festal  meal  and  delight  in 
the  gifts  men  bring.  The  effort  of  men  to  adapt  themselves  to 
the  rule  of  such  gods  is  on  the  whole  successful.  With  all  the  sad- 

1  Cp.  supra,  p.  168  f. 

2  Cp.  "  The  Homeric  View  of  the  Future  Life  "  in  Am.  Jour.  Theol.  i  (1897) 
741  f. 

8  Keller,  Homeric  Society,  138 ;  Schoemann,  Griech.  Alt.  2.  134. 
GREEK   RELIGION  — 15 


226  GREEK   RELIGION 

ness  inevitable  to  human  life,  religion  is  no  added  burden ;  the 
religion  of  the  epic  shares  the  epic  atmosphere 'of  social  pleasure, 
and  successful  human  activity ;  it  belongs  with  the  banquet  hall  in 
which  the  epic  was  sung. 

During  the  Greek  "  middle  ages  "  the  influence  of  the  epic  con- 
ception of  religion  produced  very  different  results  according  to  the 
nature  of  each  local  worship.  Wherever  the  epic  came  in  contact 
with  a  worship  at  all  in  harmony  with  its  own  views,  that  worship 
was  brought  within  the  sphere  of  its  positive  influence.  Heaven- 
gods  were  identified  with  Zeus  more  widely  than  before,  sea-gods 
with  Poseidon,  flock-gods  with  Apollo.  The  communion  meal 
tended  to  be  more  like  the  banquets  of  Menelaus  and  Alcinous. 
Seers  of  the  Calchas  type  found  their  power  increased,  and  more 
weight  was  attached  to  omens  in  the  sky.  We  must  believe  that 
everywhere  the  epic  helped  to  make  religion  more  beautiful  and 
more  reasonable;  particularly  in  the  developing  worship  of  the 
new  Greek  cities  the  epic  religion  found  an  opportunity  to  mould 
religious  belief  and  practice  in  harmony  with  these  ideals. 

In  the  case  of  worship  which  was  out  of  line  with  these  con- 
ceptions, the  effect  of  the  epic  was  more  various.  Miss  Harrison l 
has  pointed  out  specific  instances,  such  as  the  worship  of  Zeus  in 
the  Diasia,  where  some  earlier,  cruder  worship  has  been  connected 
with  the  Olympian  gods  or  overlaid  with  a  new  type  of  worship 
which  is  in  harmony  with  the  nature  of  these  gods.  It  would  be 
idle  to  deny  the  influence  of  the  epic  in  producing  this  result. 
Again,  we  find  from  later  sources  that  various  forms  of  magic  were 
practised  by  the  Greeks.  These  cannot  all  be  explained  as  impor- 
tations ;  rather  they  belong  to  this  people  as  to  every  people.  By 
omitting  references  to  lower  magic,  the  epic  tended  to  check  the 
practice  of  magic ;  by  bringing  the  world  completely  under  the 
sway  of  its  human  gods,  it  tended  to  destroy  that  whole  philoso- 
phy of  life  which  is  presupposed  by  magic  rites.  Its  religion  was 
a  rational  one,  tending  in  the  direction  of  an  "Aufklarung"  for 
poet  and  hearer. 

1  Prolegomena  to  the  Study  of  Greek  Religion,  p.  12  f. 


RELIGION   IN  THE   GREEK  "MIDDLE  AGES"     227 

There  remained,  however,  many  rites  and  practices  which  it 
could  not  harmonize  with  its  ideals,  or  check  by  its  ban.  It  is 
to  this  fact  that  I  would  refer  the  twofold  nature  of  later  Greek 
worship.  The  distinction  between  the  communion  meal  and  the 
various  rites  known  as  purificatory  or  piacular  has  already  been 
emphasized  as  a  fundamental  principle  for  the  student  of  Greek 
religion.  But  while  the  first  form  is  one  comparatively  uniform 
type,  the  second  varies  somewhat  with  the  locality,  the  god  or  hero 
to  whom  it  is  offered,  and  the  purpose  in  view.  The  epic  tended 
to  reduce  the  worship  of  its  gods  to  the  type  of  sacrifice  which  it 
had  selected  ;  at  the  same  time  it  emphasized  the  antithesis  between 
these  gods  and  the  local  gods  (including  heroes),  and  helped  to 
make  the  distinction  between  the  communion  meal  sacrifice  to 
Olympian  rulers  and  all  other  worship.  Piacular  sacrifice  to  gods 
easily  angered,  purificatory  rites,  the  worship  of  heroes,  the  worship 
of  the  dead,  the  "  mysteries,"  were  bound  to  persist,  but  they  per- 
sisted as  a  ritual  over  against  the  regular  worship  of  the  national 
gods ;  only  in  exceptional  instances  did  they  hold  a  place  in  the 
worship  of  Zeus  or  Apollo.  The  effect  of  the  epic  was  to  empha- 
size this  contrast. 

3.  The  Theogony  of  Hesiod.  —  An  examination  of  the  poetry 
which  has  come  down  under  the  name  of  Hesiod  only  confirms 
the  above  account  of  religion  in  this  period.1  From  the  poems  we 
learn  that  the  father  of  Hesiod  had  moved  from  Cyme  in  Asia 
Minor  to  Ascra  in  Boeotia,  where  his  son  tended  the  flocks  till  he 
received  the  bard's  laurel  branch  from  the  Muses  themselves. 
The  connection  with  Asia  Minor  explains  the  epic  form  of  the 
poems,  while  the  new  environment  accounts  for  the  different 
world  which  they  reveal.  Peasants  take  the  place  of  princes,  the 
poems  move  on  the  plane  of  fact  rather  than  fancy,  homely  adage 
and  moral  tale  replace  dramatic  narrative.  The  crossing  of  reli- 
gious influences  in  Boeotia  perhaps  explains  reflections  on  such 
a  theme  as  the  families  of  the  gods. 

How  much  does  Hesiod  find,  and  how  much  does  he  invent? 
l  The  poems  of  Hesiod  are  ordinarily  assigned  to  the  eighth  century  B.C.. 


228  GREEK   RELIGION 

It  is  probable  that  the  idea  of  a  theogony  is  a  primitive  factor  in 
Greek  religion,  as  in  early  religion  elsewhere.  The  superstition 
as  to  lucky  days  belongs  to  the  common  life  of  the  Boeotian  peas- 
ant ;  no  doubt  practical  rules  and  moral  adages  come  from  the 
same  source  ;  it  has  been  shown l  that  the  account  of  the  five  ages 
rests  on  an  ancestor  worship  still  practised  in  Boeotia  in  a  much 
later  period  ;  the  place  assigned  to  Eros  in  the  cosmogony  cannot 
be  wholly  independent  of  the  worship  of  Eros  in  Thespiae,  not  far 
from  Ascra.  Whether  such  "episodes"  as  the  account  of  five 
ages,  of  Pandora,  of  Typhoeus,  can  be  traced  back  to  earlier 
hymns,  is  not  an  all-important  question  for  religious  history. 
These  sections,  loosely  joined  to  the  poem,  are  not  invented  by 
the  poet ;  they  contain  old  material  which  had  not  yet  passed  out 
of  the  sphere  of  popular  belief. 

The  work  of  Hesiod  (or  of  the  Hesiodic  school)  is  seen  in  the 
effort  to  harmonize  the  account  of  the  gods  in  a  consistent  sys- 
tem. For  the  first  time  myth  was  treated  in  a  critical  spirit ;  what 
did  not  fit  the  system  was  rejected,  and  abstract  ideas  were  intro- 
duced to  fill  out  the  system.  Old  tradition  furnished  the  scheme 
of  the  family  as  the  basis.  The  progressive  organization  of  the 
physical  world,  broken  by  physical  "  catastrophes  "  such  as  earth- 
quakes, is  a  principle  which  finds  expression  in  the  successive 
generations  of  the  gods  and  in  the  conflicts  of  the  gods  (Cronus- 
Uranus,  Zeus-Cronus,  gods-giants).  The  other  main  principle  is 
moral,  in  that  the  order  which  gradually  prevails  is  a  moral  order ; 
the  Erinyes  punish  crime,  countless  "  watchers  "  are  on  the  look- 
out to  detect  evil,  Wisdom  and  Justice  (Metis  and  Themis)  are 
the  first  wives  of  Zeus.  In  spite  of  the  moral  degeneration  of 
mankind  as  the  ages  advance,  the  reign  of  law  and  reason  has 
been  making  progress  in  the  person  of  the  gods. 

The  gods  of  Hesiod  are  of  much  the  same  type  as  those  of 
Homer,  gods  detached  from  worship  and  assigned  some  definite 
function  in  a  universal  divine  world.  Perhaps  the  sacred  days 
should  be  regarded  as  a  part  of  local  worship,  though  in  general 

l  Rohde,  Psyche,  85  f. 


RELIGION   IN   THE   GREEK  "MIDDLE  AGES"     229 

what  is  purely  local  in  story  or  ritual  is  passed  by  in  silence.  Dem- 
eter  and  Dionysus  of  the  peasant  faith  are  beginning  to  claim 
recognition  in  the  Olympian  world.  Yet  these  same  Olympian 
divinities  are  simpler  here,  and  more  abstract  in  their  nature. 
The  brief  myth-scenes  give  no  such  scope  for  developing  the  per- 
sonality of  the  divine  actors  as  does  the  dramatic  story  of  the  epic. 
Genuine  myth  finds  a  much  larger  place  than  in  Homer ;  as  the 
epic  helped  to  make  the  gods  genuine  persons,  so  the  Theogony  of 
Hesiod  became  a  sort  of  code  of  Greek  myths.  The  relation  of 
the  gods  as  defined  by  Hesiod  was  the  norm  of  local  story  and 
the  basis  on  which  later  theogonies  were  constructed.  The  testi- 
mony of  Hesiodic  poetry  indicates  (i)  that  Boeotian  cults  were 
quite  generally  "  Olympian,"  (2)  that  the  worship  of  heroes  or 
ancestors  was  important,  and  (3)  that  other  forms  of  worship,  the 
existence  of  which  we  must  assume,  might  safely  be  neglected  by 
the  poets. 


CHAPTER   III 
RELIGION  IN  THE  SEVENTH  AND  SIXTH  CENTURIES  B.C. 

1.  Social  and  Political  Changes;  Literature. — Though  the 
political  and  the  social  development  of  Greece  continue  without 
marked  change  through  the  eighth  and  the  seventh  centuries,  and 
the  epoch  now  to  be  considered  shows  only  the  fruition  of  influ- 
ences already  at  work,  a  striking  change  in  religion  makes  this 
from  our  standpoint  a  distinct  epoch.  The  seventh  century  was 
characterized  by  a  great  religious  revival ;  Dionysus  won  a  place 
among  the  Olympian  deities  ;  rites  of  popular  worship  were  imbued 
with  spiritual  meaning  and  gained  new  importance ;  the  Orphic 
movement  arose  in  the  effort  to  satisfy  a  new  sense  of  religious 
need. 

The  connection  of  Greece  with  the  Mediterranean  world  along 
trade  routes  became  still  more  important  than  during  the  pre- 
ceding centuries.  The  introduction  of  coined  money  about 
700  B.C.  greatly  facilitated  the  development  of  commerce,  bring- 
ing in  its  train  results  good  and  evil.  Manufacture  and  export 
were  no  longer  limited  to  a  few  centres ;  slave  labor  proved  the 
most  economical  method  of  production,  and  slaves  the  most  valu- 
able objects  imported  into  Greece  ;  a  trade  aristocracy  with  ideals 
formed  in  trade  arose  to  compete  with  the  aristocracy  of  birth. 
To  a  poet  of  the  old  order  like  Theognis  the  love  of  money 
seemed  the  root  of  all  the  evils  about  him,  the  insolence  of  "  up- 
starts," the  absence  of  the  sense  of  honor,  the  disregard  of  all  that 
made  life  beautiful.  Moreover,  social  barriers  were  giving  way  to 
an  individual  opportunity  to  rise  or  fall ;  as  the  gifted  man  might 
rise  to  unaccustomed  power,  so  the  masses  might  fall  into  debt 
and  a  poverty  never  known  before. 

230 


SEVENTH   AND   SIXTH   CENTURIES  231 

It  was  in  this  epoch  that  the  city  became  the  centre  6f  Greek 
life,  and  the  power  controlling  a  large  surrounding  territory.  These 
city-states  have  armies  of  heavy-armed  soldiers  instead  of  bands 
of  retainers  led  by  knights ;  they  are  developing  navies  to  pro- 
tect their  commerce.  The  aristocracy  which  had  quite  generally 
thrown  the  king  into  the  background  is  brought  into  conflict  with 
the  new  leaders  of  commerce  and  with  the  masses.  One  of  the 
first  results  of  the  new  conditions  was  the  demand  for  a  uniform 
administration  of  justice  which  led  to  codified  laws.  When  the 
conflict  of  classes  became  acute,  some  individual,  often  one  of 
the  aristocracy,  might  make  himself  a  leader  of  the  people  and 
rule  as  a  tyrant.  The  word  "  tyrant  "  means  simply  that  his  power 
was  unconstitutional.  It  might  be  used  to  beautify  the  city  with 
temples  and  sculpture,  to  advance  its  commerce  by  improving 
the  roads  and  developing  a  merchant  marine,  to  introduce  such 
public  improvements  as  a  good  water-supply,  to  furnish  the  people 
with  festivals  and  games  for  their  amusement,  to  establish  order 
and  justice  in  the  state.  Or,  along  with  the  material  splendor  he 
introduced,  the  tyrant  might  rule  with  iron  rod  for  the  gain  of  none 
but  himself.  Wherever  it  appeared,  the  tyranny  left  its  mark  on 
religion. 

The  establishment  of  colonies  in  the  east  and  in  the  west  con- 
tinued in  the  seventh  century.  Wherever  trade  routes  opened  the 
way  to  some  inviting  region,  whenever  there  were  bold  leaders 
(perhaps  nobles  disappointed  in  their  schemes  at  home)  and 
adventurous  spirits  to  follow,  a  colony  was  established.  At  this 
time  the  oracle  at  Delphi  had  become  the  power  that  suggested 
the  foundation  of  colonies  and  directed  their  leaders.  The  cessa- 
tion of  this  movement  in  the  sixth  century  is  more  difficult  to 
explain  than  its  origin,  though  no  doubt  the  development  of 
larger  states  at  home,  and  the  crystallization  of  society  along  more 
definite  lines,  tended  to  check  it. 

The  most  important  result  of  these  political  and  economic 
changes  for  the  history  of  religion  was  the  new  importance  of 
the  individual  citizen.  The  sense  of  personality  was  beginning 


232  GREEK   RELIGION 

to  develop ;  with  it  came  the  sense  of  a  personal  religious  need 
which  did  not  appear  in  the  epic,  and  which  the  epic  type  of  wor- 
ship did  not  satisfy.  The  rise  of  lyric  poetry  and  of  philosophy  was 
also  conditioned  by  the  recognition  of  a  personality  over  against 
society  and  not  absolutely  bound  by  social  tradition.  That  the 
recital  of  the  epic  was  transferred  from  the  homes  of  a  feudal 
aristocracy  to  the  market-place  and  an  audience  of  the  people, 
was  a  direct  result  of  the  changed  conditions.  A  state  made  up 
of  many  citizens  had  replaced  the  group  of  a  few  knights  led  by  a 
king  and  attended  by  their  retainers,  and  all  the  splendor  which 
might  have  attended  a  court  was  lavished  on  the  city,  its  temples, 
and  its  public  service  of  the  gods. 

It  is  in  the  literature  of  the  period  that  these  influences  are 
most  clearly  seen.  The  so-called  Homeric  hymns  are  probably 
prooemiums  with  which  the  rhapsode  began  his  recital  of  the  epic 
at  public  festivals  of  the  gods.  The  occasion  explains  both  the 
choice  of  some  local  story,  such  as  the  birth  of  Apollo,  and  the 
pan-Hellenic  form  in  which  that  story  is  cast.  It  explains,  too, 
the  tone  of  serene  joy  which  marks  the  hymns ;  they  reflect  both 
the  calm  dignity  of  the  gods  and  the  cheerfulness  of  the  festival 
scene  of  which  they  form  a  part.  These  gods  are  still  the  gods  of 
Homer,  human,  universal,  "  of  easy  life,"  but  in  the  environment 
of  worship  a  very  different  side  to  their  character  is  brought  to  the 
front.  The  picture  of  local  worship  —  for  example,  the  worship 
of  Demeter  at  Eleusis  —  makes  these  hymns  most  important  to 
students  of  Greek  religion. 

In  lyric  poetry  the  Greek  genius  first  began  to  break  free  from 
a  religious  theme.  The  stern  elegies  of  Callinus  and  Tyrtaeus 
praise  the  soldier's  valor  and  the  soldier's  death.  But  elegy  was 
better  adapted  to  moral  and  political  subjects  than  to  war.  Tyrtaeus 
sought  by  his  poetry  to  introduce  order  into  turbulent  Sparta,  on 
the  ground  that  the  gods  who  founded  the  city  should  be  honored 
there  ;  faith  in  gods  who  protected  the  righteous  and  punished 
sin,  especially  the  faith  in  Athena  who  watched  over  Athens, 
inspired  Solon  to  introduce  into  the  city  a  new  social  order; 


SEVENTH   AND    SIXTH   CENTURIES  233 

with  all  his  sense  of  injustice  among  men,  Theognis  did  not  lose 
belief  in  the  righteous  rule  of  Zeus,  nor  was  religious  ritual  out- 
side the  pale  of  his  moral  teaching.  The  light  raillery  and  satire 
of  iambic  poetry  does  not  dwell  on  religious  themes,  though  it  was 
intimately  connected  with  carnival  practices  in  the  peasant  worship 
of  Demeter.  In  the  melic  poetry  of  Ionia  only  the  gods  of  wine 
and  of  love  are  celebrated;  but  occasionally,  as  in  the  perfect 
hymn  of  Sappho  to  Aphrodite,  the  poet  touches  deep  springs  of 
religious  feeling.  Yet  even  for  lyric  poetry  religion  offered  the 
highest  themes.  The  passion  of  Archilochus  found  its  lasting 
expression  in  hymns  to  Demeter  and  Heracles  and  Dionysus ; 
the  story  of  Apollo  was  the  worthiest  theme  for  the  muse  of 
Alcaeus ;  while  the  later  Dorian  lyric  became  the  handmaid  of 
religion.  Its  choral  hymns,  paeans  to  Apollo,  cyclic  dithyrambs  to 
Dionysus,  parthenia  to  the  gods  of  youth,  prosodia  (processionals) 
for  the  temple  ritual,  all  but  supplanted  the  cruder  forms  of 
liturgy  in  the  worship  at  many  temples.  As  epic  poetry  had  given 
the  gods  human  passions  and  human  sympathies,  as  the  sculptor 
and  the  architect  were  consecrating  their  skill  to  beautify  the 
environment  of  worship,  so  the  choral  lyric  gave  rich  poetic  form 
to  the  very  ritual  itself. 

The  one  discordant  note  in  the  lyric  poetry  of  the  sixth  century 
is  found  not  in  the  light  touch  of  Hipponax,  but  in  the  elegies  of 
that  bold  religious  critic  Xenophanes.  It  was  true  religious  feeling 
which  prompted  him  to  sing,  "  God  is  one,  supreme  among  gods 
and  men,  not  like  mortals  in  body  or  in  mind  ";  "  but  if  cattle  or 
lions  had  hands,  so  as  to  paint  with  their  hands  and  produce  works 
of  art  as  men  do,  they  would  paint  their  gods  and  give  them  bodies 
in  form  like  their  own,  horses  like  horses,  cattle  like  cattle."  Just 
at  the  end  of  the  sixth  century  the  mythical  account  of  the  gods 
began  to  be  criticised  in  a  less  radical  way  by  Stesichorus.  This 
"  arranger  of  choruses  "  rewrote  the  old  stories  of  the  gods  in  his 
hymns.  The  introduction  of  moral  motives  into  the  story  of 
Agamemnon  and  Orestes  was  due  to  him  ;  he  made  Heracles  a 
moral  hero,  the  much-enduring  opponent  of  evil ;  he  held  that 


234  GREEK   RELIGION 

Artemis  threw  a  stagskin  over  Actaeon  instead  of  transforming  him 
into  a  stag.  From  the  same  standpoint  he  criticised  the  conduct 
of  Helen  in  going  to  Troy  with  Paris,  but  when  he  was  stricken 
with  blindness,  he  wrote  a  palinode  retracting  his  statements. 
While  Homer  had  made  the  gods  actors  in  the  epic  drama,  and 
Hesiod  had  felt  free  to  fit  them  into  his  system  of  origins,  now  for 
the  first  time  in  literature  the  gods  are  tested  by  religious  and 
moral  standards,  only  to  be  found  wanting. 

First  on  the  coast  of  Asia  Minor,  then  in  southern  Italy,  the 
sixth  century  saw  the  beginning  of  Greek  philosophy.  The  phrase 
"  all  things  are  full  of  gods  "  is  attributed  to  Thales,  but  these  gods 
are  not  the  Apollo  or  Aphrodite  of  popular  belief.  The  question 
"  what  is  reality?"  does  not  lead  to  a  religious  answer  until  it  has 
been  asked  for  two  centuries.  Reality  is  water,  or  air,  or  fire ; 
natural  causes  are  found  for  the  phenomena  of  earth  and  sky ;  as 
compared  with  this  reality  and  these  causes,  the  gods  of  Olympus 
are  reduced  to  a  subordinate  position.  Heracleitus  {frag.  67,  97, 
98)  accepts  the  epic  kinship  of  gods  and  men  in  its  larger  sig- 
nificance. The  people  do  not  know  what  gods  or  heroes  are 
{frag.  130)  ;  divine  images  can  no  more  hear  prayer  than  can  the 
walls  of  a  house  ;  bacchanalian  rites  (frag.  124,  127),  mourning  for 
the  death  of  gods  {frag.  130  a),  purifications  with  blood  {frag. 
130), —  these  he  boldly  attacks  as  examples  of  human  stupidity; 
yet  he  would  find  in  religion  "cures"  for  the  soul  {frag.  129)  ; 
in  a  word  he  recognizes  something  divine  in  the  order  of  the 
universe,  and  he  believes  that  there  are  divinities  who  watch  over 
men.  Of  Pythagoras  I  shall  speak  in  connection  with  the  Orphic 
movement.  The  successors  of  these  early  thinkers  in  the  fifth 
century  preserved  the  same  attitude  toward  religion,  either  neglect- 
ing it  or  criticising  its  errors  in  the  effort  to  reach  its  truth.  For 
the  period  now  under  consideration,  that  sixth  century  which  was 
most  prolific  in  new  ideas,  philosophy  obtained  so  little  influence 
that  it  provoked  no  real  opposition  from  priest  or  statesman. 

2.  Changes  in  Belief  and  Worship.  —  The  influence  of  the  epic, 
tending  to  reduce  the  gods  of  local  worship  to  its  universal,  super- 


SEVENTH  AND   SIXTH   CENTURIES 


235 


human  type,  continued  down  through  the  seventh  and  sixth  cen- 
turies ;  during  this  epoch  its  quiet  power  became  dominant, 
especially  in  the  worship  of  the  growing  cities,  and  its  work  was 
in  a  sense  completed.  The  rude  symbols  which  often  had 
marked  the  presence  of  a  divinity  began  to  be  replaced  with 
carved  images  in  human  form,  or  the  sacred  pillar  was  draped 


FIG.  69.  — ATHENIAN  RED-FIGURED  VASE  PAINTING  (Kylix  by  Hieron, 

Berlin) 

Maenads  are  dancing  before  an  altar  and  a  draped  pillar  with  Dionysus  mask 

(herm). 

with  garments  and  hung  with  a  mask  representing  the  human  face  ; 
for  only  the  human  form  adequately  symbolized  these  gods. 
Shrines  and  groves  no  longer  sufficed  as  houses  for  the  gods,  but 
temples  must  be  built  in  their  honor.  Even  in  the  votive  offer- 
ings it  is  perhaps  possible  to  detect  evidences  of  more  definite 
anthropomorphism.  The  epic  names  which  stood  for  the  uni- 
versal factor  in  the  nature  of  each  local  god  in  some  measure 
supplanted  the  old  "  epithet "  names  of  worship.  Even  the 


236  GREEK   RELIGION 

chthonic  deities  and  the  heroes  of  local  worship  were  endowed 
with  at  least  a  nominal  universality. 

It  is  not  enough  to  say  that  the  gods  were  more  generally  con- 
ceived in  definite  human  form ;  their  character  became  a  more 
perfect  expression  of  human  ideals.  All  that  was  beautiful  and 
passionate  in  human  love  was  embodied  in  Aphrodite.  Zeus  the 
ruler  was  endowed  with  all  wisdom  and  justice.  Moral  as  well 
as  ritual  purity  belonged  to  Apollo  and  guided  the  responses 
of  his  Delphic  oracle,  till  at  length  the  sunlight  was  the  best 
expression  of  his  nature.  The  new  devotion  to  the  state,  the 
virtue  of  patriotism,  was  freely  attributed  to  the  patron  deity  of 
each  state.  Indeed,  the  conception  of  divinity  as  the  ideal  of 
justice  and  morality  began  already  in  this  epoch  to  destroy  the 
distinct  personality  which  made  each  god  a  separate  being. 

The  rising  spirit  of  reflection  could  not  avoid  the  question  of  a 
theodicy.  In  the  earlier  lyric  poetry  political  and  social  confusion 
led  to  many  pessimistic  expressions  ;  Mimnermus  had  felt  that  the 
evils  of  life  more  than  balanced  the  good,  and  Theognis  had  said 
much  of  the  prevalent  injustice  ;  yet  the  same  Theognis  kept  a 
firm  faith  in  the  ultimate  righteousness  of  the  divine  rule.  This 
faith  was  based  on  the  general  run  of  events,  while  apparent 
exceptions  were  explained  as  due  to  a  delay  of  punishment.  In 
an  age  of  expansion  and  change  the  moralist  preached  the  Greek 
virtue  of  moderation ;  the  cardinal  sin  was  the  effort  to  overstep 
the  limits  of  human  life  which  the  gods  had  prescribed  ;  overbear- 
ing conduct  (u/fyus)  was  punished,  contentment  with  what  the  gods 
sent  was  the  source  of  happiness.  The  identification  of  the  world- 
order  with  the  rule  of  the  gods  had  begun  in  the  epic.  But  while 
in  the  epic  events  are  referred  to  the  personal  will  of  the  gods,  in 
lyric  poetry  they  are  referred  to  that  moral  order  which  is  called 
by  Solon  (e.g.  frag.  4.  9)  and  Archilochus  "  the  gods "  {frag. 
55-  5;  29;  33),  by  Semonides  "god"  (frag.  i.  5),  by  Callinus 
"fate"  (frag.  \.  9  and  12).  Where  it  is  assigned  to  any  one 
god,  naturally  that  god  is  Zeus  (Terpander,  frag,  i  ;  Mimnermus, 
frag.  2  and  5  ;  Archilochus,  frag.  6).  From  this  standpoint 


SEVENTH   AND   SIXTH   CENTURIES  237 

Athena  is  an  agent  fulfilling  the  will  of  Zeus  (Solon,  frag.  13.  1-4), 
Apollo  is  the  mouthpiece  of  Zeus ;  in  a  word,  the  conception  of  a 
world-order  inevitably  tends  to  undermine  the  individual  person- 
ality of  the  gods.  The  criticism  of  popular  belief  by  Xenophanes 
and  Stesichorus  has  already  been  mentioned.  From  this  time  on 
the  discrepancy  between  moral  and  religious  ideals  on  the  one 
hand,  ritual  and  popular  belief  on  the  other,  cuts  at  the  very  root 
of  Greek  religion. 

But  while  criticism  of  the  gods  from  the  standpoint  of  religion 
and  morals  as  yet  affected  only  the  few,  a  more  widespread 
sense  of  lack  in  the  religion  of  the  old  Olympian  gods  was 
due  to  their  increasing  separation  from  everyday  life.  As  ideal 
beings  who  belonged  in  the  heavens,  gods  untouched  by  the 
sorrows  and  sins  of  humanity,  they  were  praised  by  the  poets 
and  pictured  by  the  artist;  the  splendid  ritual  of  their  worship 
served  admirably  as  a  state  religion ;  but  the  very  perfection 
of  such  gods  made  it  impossible  for  them  to  meet  the  actual 
needs  of  the  individual.  Even  though  Athena  gave  her  people 
the  olive  and  blessed  the  crafts  of  potter  and  weaver,  she  did 
not  fully  meet  their  needs.  The  increasing  worship  of  local 
heroes  was,  like  the  worship  of  the  Christian  saints,  an  appeal 
to  gods  on  whose  sympathy  the  worshipper  could  reckon.  The 
same  demand  for  gods  not  too  far  off  from  men  was  one  reason, 
along  with  others  to  be  considered  later,  for  the  rapid  growth 
of  Demeter  and  Dionysus  worship.  The  gods  of  corn  and  wine, 
even  when  they  were  included  among  the  Olympian  deities,  did 
not  lose  their  hold  on  human  life. 

If  now  we  turn  from  the  gods  to  the  consideration  of  worship, 
the  increasing  control  of  worship  by  the  state,  and  the  adaptation 
of  worship  to  the  needs  of  the  state,  is  significant.  For  the 
early  tribes  who  penetrated  southward  into  Greece,  the  religious 
group  and  the  political  group  were  practically  identical.  But 
the  crossing  of  religious  influences,  together  with  the  mingling 
of  races  in  the  "middle  ages,"  tended  to  make  the  group  of  those 
who  worshipped  at  any  one  shrine  independent  of  the  state. 


238  GREEK  RELIGION 

Only  the  rise  of  the  cities  and  of  larger  states  centring  in 
cities  made  possible  a  union  of  "  church  and  state "  again. 
The  controlling  power  in  each  city  brought  one  cult  after  another 
under  the  supervision  of  the  city,  as  much  to  secure  the  stability 
of  the  city  by  divine  blessing,  as  much  to  gratify  the  people 
by  splendid  festivals,  as  from  any  direct  interest  in  the  cults 
themselves.  The  adoption  by  the  city  of  cults  hitherto  private 
was  the  first  step  toward  the  nationalization  of  worship. 

The  second  step  was  the  erection  of  temples  and  of  statues 
in  the  temples.  Even  in  the  sixth  century,  the  substitution  of 
statues  in  human  form  for  "fetiches"  and  sacred  pillars  was 
not  unusual.  But  perhaps  the  use  of  decorative  painting"  and 
relief  to  represent  the  gods  was  more  common,  in  that  it 
depicted  the  gods  in  visible  form  without  interfering  with  old 
symbols.  Certainly  the  temple  was  older  than  the  temple  statue  ; 
in  other  words  elaborate  structures  as  dwelling  places  for  the 
gods  supplanted  the  shrines  in  which  a  fetich  symbol  might  be 
kept,  even  before  human  art  had  the  courage  to  make  a  statue 
of  the  god  in  his  dwelling.  The  wealth  of  the  city,  which  in 
Mycenaean  days  had  been  lavished  on  the  palace  and  its  fortified 
surroundings,  was  now  devoted  to  splendid  edifices  for  the  city's 
divine  lords.  A  tyrant  like  Peisistratus  gave  the  people  both 
occupation  and  a  pride  in  what  he  had  done  for  their  city,  by 
erecting  stone  temples  to  'Athena  and  Dionysus  and  other  gods. 
The  importance  of  religion  as  a  state  institution  is  indicated  by 
the  fact  that  temples  were  the  first  public  buildings  to  be  built 
in  enduring  form. 

With  the  erection  of  temples  by  the  city-state  there  came 
the  adoption  and  transformation  of  religious  festivals.1  Up  to 
this  time  ritual  had  been  comparatively  simple,  and  local  shrines 
too  poor  to  make  the  worship  rich  or  impressive.  It  remained 
for  a  Peisistratus  to  use  the  wealth  of  Athens  in  enriching  the 
festivals  which  came  under  the  direction  of  the  state.  Splendid 
processions  and  elaborate  sacrifices  at  the  expense  of  the  state 
1  Cp.  supra,  p.  na, 


SEVENTH   AND   SIXTH    CENTURIES  239 

made  the  worship  of  the  gods  a  worthy  expression  of  the  state's 
devotion  to  them  ;  trained  choruses  of  singers  performed  the 
liturgy  of  worship ;  at  the  Panathenaea  athletic  contests  and 
the  recital  of  poetry  provided  entertainment  for  all  the  people. 
The  final  triumph  of  the  Olympian  gods  came  now  when  they 
were  worshipped  by  the  state  to  secure  their  blessings  for  the 
state. 

At  this  same  time  a  pan-Hellenic  worship  rose  to  prominence, 
for  Apollo  and  Zeus  were  universal  Greek  gods.  Athletic  contests, 
which  once  had  been  celebrated  at  funerals  of  kings  and  nobles, 
now  became  a  possession  of  the  people.  In  local  festivals,  but 
especially  in  the  great  festivals  at  Delphi  (to  Apollo);  at  the  Isth- 
mus of  Corinth  (to  Poseidon),  at  Nemea  and  Olympia  (to  Zeus), 
these  contests  were  a  real  form  of  worship  to  gods  of  all  Greece. 
It  was  the  oracle  at  Delphi,  however,  which  proved  its  right  to  be 
called  the  religious  centre  of  Greece.  Its  guidance  for  colonies 
was  held  to  be  essential ;  changes  in  ritual  or  worship,  as  well 
as  changes  in  government,  were  ratified  by  it ;  in  particular  the 
development  of  local  worship  and  the  new  demand  for  purification 
were  directed  by  Apollo.1  With  the  victory  of  Apollo  over  that 
old  nature  god,  later  identified  with  Dionysus,  whose  tomb  was 
marked  by  a  mound  (the  omphalos)  in  the  temple  precinct,  the 
triumph  of  those  ideals  for  which  Apollo  stood  was  assured  for 
Greek  religion. 

One  of  the  most  patent  influences  of  the  Delphic  oracle  had  to 
do  with  rites  of  purification.  The  Homeric  poems  have  nothing 
to  say  about  the  taint  of  sin  or  the  need  of  purification  from  evil ; 
according  to  the  later  epics,  however,  Achilles  who  slew  Thersites, 
the  daughters  of  Danaus,  Heracles,  all  who  have  shed  blood, 
need  to  be  purified.  It  may  be  that  the  social  confusion  and 
consequent  misery  of  the  period  under  discussion  helped  to 
develop  the  sense  of  divine  displeasure  with  evil,  along  with  the 
belief  that  the  gods  demanded  purity.  Certainly  we  'find  a  deep- 
rooted  belief  that  the  soul  of  the  dead  man  pursued  his  murderer 
1  Cp.  supra,  p.  60  f. 


240  GREEK   RELIGION 

in  relentless  anger  until  it  had  been  appeased.  Further,  the  reign 
of  divine  justice  was  seen  in  the  fact  that  the  taint  of  blood  brought 
upon  a  community  the  anger  of  the  gods.  The  laws  by  which 
Greek  states  at  this  period  controlled  vengeance  by  relatives  of 
the  murdered  man  are  based  on  the  double  belief  in  the  anger 
of  the  murdered  man's  soul  and  in  the  anger  of  gods.  Even  in 
case  the  relatives  were  satisfied,  it  was  necessary  for  the  murderer 
to  appease  the  soul  of  the  dead,  and  for  the  community  to  purify 
itself  from  evil.  It  was  through  the  Delphic  Apollo  that  the 
demand  for  purification  was  developed  and  directed.  In  his  wor- 
ship men  imitated  the  rites  of  purification  which,  they  believed, 
the  god  himself  had  originally  performed  after  killing  even  such 
an  evil  monster  as  the  Python ;  for  the  purity  of  the  god  must  be 
unsullied,  the  standard  for  the  purity  he  demanded  of  men.  The 
character  of  the  rites,  the  shedding  of  blood  to  appease  the  angry 
soul  and  the  piacular  sacrifices  to  the  gods,  have  been  discussed 
above.1 

Perhaps  the  purifications  in  the  worship  of  agricultural  deities 
are  the  same  in  principle,  rites  to  remove  any  possible  taint  of 
evil  which  might  lead  these  gods  to  destroy  the  crops.  With  the 
rise  of  other  forms  of  peasant  worship  these  rites  come  into  promi- 
nence :  at  Athens  the  Diasia  of  Zeus,  the  Thargelia  of  Apollo,  the 
Skirophoria  of  Athena  include  worship  to  ward  off  the  possible 
anger  of  the  gods  by  means  of  purificatory  rites. 

3.  The  Rise  of  Dionysus  Worship.  —  The  most  striking  feature 
of  religious  history  in  this  epoch  finds  its  explanation  in  the  new 
prominence  of  peasant  worship,  to  which  reference  has  just  been 
made.  The  worship  of  the  state,  however  rich  and  beautiful,  did 
not  satisfy  the  needs  of  the  individual ;  he  turned  to  foreign  forms 
of  worship  and  to  the  cruder,  simpler  worship  of  the  peasant.  The 
gods  who  live  and  work  in  nature,  who  suffer  as  man  suffers  and 
give  him  joy  in  their  joy,  whose  worship  is  concerned  with  the 
plough  and  the  sickle,  Demeter  and  Dionysus,  tend  to  supplant 
the  serene  spirits  of  Olympus  in  the  real  religion  of  the  seventh 

1  Cp.  supra,  p.  105  f. 


SEVENTH   AND   SIXTH    CENTURIES  241 

and  sixth  centuries.  Demeter,  the  grain  goddess,  made  good  her 
right  to  be  classed  with  the  other  Olympian  gods,  while  her  wor- 
ship retained  the  same  mystic  forms  which  made  it  potent  in 
causing  the  grain  to  sprout.  Dionysus,  however,  was  the  god 
about  whom  the  great  religious  revival  centred,  Dionysus  the 
twice-born,  for  in  a  Thracian  god  the  Greeks  recognized  that 
same  spirit  of  plant-life  and  of  the  vine  which  was  worshipped  in 
winter  and  spring  by  their  own  farming  class. 

The  evidence  that  Dionysus  was  a  foreign  god  is  found  in  the 
myths  of  his  coming  to  Greece,  in  the  fact  that  from  Homer  on 
he  was  associated  with  Thrace,  and  in  the  fundamental  difference 
between  his  worship  and  that  of  the  other  Olympian  gods.1  In 
Thrace  the  prototype  of  the  Greek  Dionysus  was  the  chief  divinity  ; 
Sabazius  was  one  of  his  names,  perhaps  Dionysus  was  another. 
His  worship  was  of  a  distinctly  orgiastic  character.  Groups  of  his 
worshippers,  mainly  women,  found  their  way  at  night  with  torches 
into  wild  glens  on  the  mountains ;  the  music  of  drums  and  cym- 
bals and  flutes  stirred  sensitive  spirits  till  their  whirling  dances 
and  wild  summons  to  the  god  induced  a  religious  frenzy  ;  serpents 
were  fondled,  the  young  of  wild  animals  were  now  suckled  by 
human  mothers,  now  torn  in  pieces  and  eaten  raw.  The  fawn- 
skin  garment,  the  wand  tipped  with  a  fir  cone  and  wreathed  in 
ivy,  sometimes  horns  attached  to  the  head,  recalled  the  god  to 
whose  service  they  were  devoted.  What  was  the  purpose  of  these 
wild  practices,  ending  in  dizziness  and  exhaustion?  The  habit  of 
calling  the  worshippers  by  the  name  of  the  god,  Saboi  (Sabazius), 
B-issaroi  (Bassareus),  Bakchoi  (Bakchos),  indicates  the  primary 
purpose,  namely,  the  identification  of  the  worshippers  and  the 
god.  The  wilder  the  frenzy,  the  more  the  worshipper  felt  him- 
self free  from  the  restraints  of  the  body  and  the  restraints  of  the 
material  world.  The  goal  of  religion,  the  oneness  of  the  man 
himself  (the  soul)  with  the  divine  being,  was  here  realized  in  its 
crudest  form.  Under  the  "  inspiration  "  of  frenzy  men  saw  what 

1  Cp.  Rapp,  Die  Beziehungen  des  Dionysoskultus  zu  Thrakien  und  Kleinasien, 
1882 ;  and  the  article  by  Voigt  in  Roscher's  Lexikon. 
GREEK   RELIGION — l6 


242  GREEK   RELIGION 

the  god  saw  and  prophesied  the  words  of  the  god.  The  man  who 
had  experienced  a  union  with  the  god  could  not  but  believe  that 
his  soul  was  of  divine  stuff  and  therefore  immortal.  The  ultimate 
purpose  of  the  worship,  however,  is  perhaps  to  be  found  in  the 
nature  of  the  god.  By  wild  rites  of  similar  character  the  peoples 
of  northern  Europe  wakened  the  dormant  spirits  and  made  the 
seeds  sprout ;  their  frenzied  dances  quickened  the  life  of  vegeta- 
tion by  "  sympathetic  magic."1  Dionysus  also  was  a  god  of  life  in 
plants  and  animals,  a  god  akin  to  the  spirits  of  vegetable  life.  The 
wild  worship  resulted  in  an  epiphany  of  the  god,  either  a  return  to 
herald  the  spring,  or  a  new  birth  of  the  god,  who  was  himself  the 
spirit  of  life. 

All  this  orgiastic  worship  was  most  foreign  to  the  Olympian 
religion  of  the  Greek  state,  and  to  all  the  ideals  of  life  which  we 
associate  with  Greece.  Yet  there  are  traces  enough  in  Greek 
religion  of  the  influence  of  the  processes  in  nature,  traces  enough 
that  the  spirit  of  life  in  vegetation  and  animals  was  recognized 
by  the  Greek  as  divine.  Thracian  tribes  who  had  gained  a  foot- 
ing on  Olympus  and  Helicon  and  Parnassus  had  long  since  made 
the  inhabitants  of  central  Greece  familiar  with  their  god.  It  has 
been  suggested  that  the  Delphic  oracle  first  belonged  to  the 
spirit  of  vegetation  who  was  wakened  to  birth  in  the  spring  by 
orgiastic  rites  on  the  mountain  peak  above,  and  whose  grave  was 
in  the  sanctuary  itself.  The  coming  of  the  Thracian  god  was 
not  the  introduction  of  a  religion  wholly  new ;  his  worship 
appealed  to  a  range  of  ideas  belonging  to  all  the  European  races, 
Greeks  included,  however  much  Olympian  ideals  had  thrown 
these  conceptions  into  the  background  ;  and  the  god  himself  was 
not  unknown  in  central  Greece. 

The  stories  of  Dionysus,  almost  all  of  them,  have  to  do  with 
the  coming  of  the  god  to  Greece.  Sometimes  he  was  graciously 
received,  as  by  Icarus  in  Attica ;  more  often  his  strange  nature 
and  strange  companions  provoked  opposition.  In  both  cases 
there  occurred  some  evidence  of  the  god's  dread  power  in  an 
l  Mannhardt,  Wold  und  FeldkuUe,  1875,  Part  I. 


SEVENTH  AND   SIXTH   CENTURIES  243 

outbreak  of  madness ;  Icarus  who  welcomed  him  was  slain  by  his 
people,  his  daughter  hung  herself  in  grief,  and  an  epidemic  of 
suicide  followed  among  the  women ;  Pentheus  who  opposed  him 
fell  a  victim  to  the  women  who  joined  in  this  worship,  women 
led  by  his  own  mother.  The  opposition  was  due  to  the  wildness 
of  his  worship  ;  the  welcome,  to  his  gift  of  the  vine.  In  both  in- 
stances, however,  the  coming  is  described  as  the  home-coming 
of  a  god  not  unknown  to  the  Greeks. 

The  facts  of  the  rapidly  increasing  worship  and  the  myths  of 
his  coming  to  Greece  can  only  be  interpreted  as  due  to  a  great 
revival  of  religion  in  which  a  wave  of  influence  from  the  north 
swept  down  over  Greece.  The  vase-paintings  of  the  sixth  cen- 
tury and  the  poetry  in  praise  of  wine  confirm  this  interpretation. 
The  Dionysus  of  the  revival  was  the  old  spirit  of  vegetable  life, 
incarnate  in  the  bull,  incarnate  in  the  wine.  No  doubt  intoxi- 
cants helped  the  frenzy  of  his  Thracian  worshippers ;  for  the 
Greeks  wine  was  the  very  essence  of  the  god,  the  immediate 
occasion  of  a  divine  frenzy  in  men. 

The  later  religious  history  of  Europe  presents  more  than  one 
parallel  to  the  Dionysus  revival,  which  spread  from  village  to  vil- 
lage as  divine  madness  seized  the  people,  which  broke  all  the 
bonds  of  social  convention,  and  overcame  the  bitterest  opposition, 
until  the  new  god  had  made  good  his  place  on  Olympus.  The 
inspired  madness  of  his  worshippers  gave  to  Greek  as  to  Thracian 
divine  "  visions,"  and  for  a  time  sibyls  and  similar  prophets  were 
common  in  Greece.  Greek,  as  well  as  Thracian,  learned  the 
divinity  and  consequent  immortality  of  the  soul  by  his  experience 
of  union  with  Dionysus.  Above  all,  the  fact  that  religion  was 
proved  a  genuine  experience,  something  more  than  myth  or 
liturgy,  made  this  movement  significant  both  for  Greek  religion 
and  for  Greek  culture.  One  of  its  lasting  results  was  the  intro- 
duction of  lacchus  (the  youthful  Dionysus)  into  the  Eleusinian 
mysteries. 

The  first  wave  of  impulse  from  the  north  at  length  spent  its 
force  j  under  the  guidance  of  the  Delphic  Apollo,  prophets  like 


244  GREEK   RELIGION 

Epimenides  and  Melampus  modified  the  wilder  practices ;  yet 
the  essence  of  the  movement  remained  to  bear  fruit  in  the  Attic 
drama  and  in  the  philosophy  of  Plato. 

4.  The  Orphic  Movement.  —  Among  the  results  of  the  revival  of 
religion  in  a  mystic  form,  one  was  so  permanent  and  influential 
that  it  cannot  be  passed  over ;  I  refer  to  the  Orphic  sect.  The 
Orphic  writings  have  come  down  to  us  in  an  extremely  late  form, 
yet  their  influence  on  literature  and  philosophy  can  be  traced  back 
well  into  the  sixth  century  B.C.  From  this  influence  we  infer  an 
Orphic  sect  consisting  of  communities  which  practised  secret  rites, 
an  Orphic  theology  which  early  attracted  the  attention  of  philoso- 
phers, and  Orphic  apostles  who  sought  to  spread  the  new  form  of 
religion.  Most  of  the  great  religions  of  the  world  have  passed 
through  a  theological  stage  in  which  doctrine  was  fixed  by  the 
priests  :  the  Orphic  movement  in  Greece  was  a  start  in  this  direc- 
tion, a  start  soon  checked  by  political,  social,  and  religious  forces  ; 
yet  the  Orphic  sect  remained  a  power  in  Athens  from  the  sixth 
century  on. 

While  the  Orphic  communities  or  "  churches  "  were  at  times 
definite  groups  of  separatists  who  stood  apart  from  the  practices 
of  the  state  religion,  and  the  Orphic  theology  is  known  in  a  well- 
defined  form,  it  is  difficult  to  ascertain  how  much  of  mystic 
practice  should  be  regarded  as  strictly  Orphic.  Apparently  rites 
from  Thrace,  Phrygia,  and  Crete  were  adopted  by  the  sect.  The 
ideas  which  had  been  stimulated  in  the  worship  of  Demeter  and 
of  Dionysus  sought  some  adequate  expression,  and  found  it  only 
in  strange  rites  from  outside.  The  source  of  these  ideas  also  was 
referred  to  a  foreigner,  that  sweet  singer  of  the  north,  the  Thracian 
Orpheus.  Through  this  child  of  divine  parentage  they  came  as  a 
revelation  of  divine  truth.  Yet  the  Orphic  belief  is  clearly  the 
product  of  an  epoch,  not  of  a  man  ;  and  however  much  it  was 
stimulated  by  foreign  beliefs  and  modified  by  foreign  practices, 
the  great  religious  teachings  of  Orphism  are  a  characteristic  Greek 
product. 

Although  the  Orphic  theology  was  based  on  the  work  of  Hesiod 


SEVENTH   AND   SIXTH   CENTURIES  245 

and  his  successors,  it  transformed  what  it  accepted  from  this 
source  in  accordance  with  two  fundamental  ideas  :  (i )  the  essential 
unity  of  the  gods  and  the  world  in  one  divine  being,  and  (2)  the 
presence  of  this  divine  nature  in  the  human  soul.  The  form  of 
the  Orphic  cosmogony  was  determined  partly  by  the  Hesiodic 
literature,  partly  by  religious  practice.  The  origin  of  the  world 
is  found  in  Chaos  (space),  Chronos  (time),  and  Aether  (fiery 
matter).  From  Chaos  and  Aether  Chronos  formed  the  world- 
egg,  from  which  was  born  Protogonos  or  Phanes,  the  father  and 
creator  of  the  universe,  a  being  identified  with  Dionysus  (the  life 
in  the  world)  and  with  Metis  (wisdom).  Phanes  was  the  father  of 
Night  and  Heaven  and  Earth  and  the  Gods,  the  creator  of  sun  and 
moon,  of  men  and  animals.  By  the  help  of  Night  Zeus  swallowed 
Phanes  (as  in  Hesiod  he  swallowed  Metis) ;  thus  he  became  the 
father  of  Athena,  and  thus  also  the  nature  of  Phanes  filled  his 
entire  being  till  he  was  the  complete  godhead.  From  Zeus  and 
Persephone  was  born  Dionysus-Zagreus,  who  as  a  child  was  made 
king  of  the  world.  But  incited  by  the  jealous  Hera,  the  Titans 
beguiled  the  boy  from  his  nurse  with  toys,  tore  him  in  pieces,  and 
ate  all  but  the  heart,  which  was  conveyed  by  Athena  to  Zeus. 
This  heart  Zeus  brought  to  life  again  as  Dionysus,  the  son  of 
Semele,  a  god  identical  in  nature  with  his  father.  The  Titans  who 
had  eaten  Dionysus-Zagreus  were  destroyed  by  the  thunderbolt  of 
Zeus  and  their  ashes  scattered  over  the  world.  These  ashes  were 
the  source  of  the  double  nature  of  man,  who  was  divine,  for  the 
life-power  of  Zagreus  was  in  them ;  evil,  for  the  Titans  had  de- 
stroyed Zagreus.  Such  was  the  fantastic  form  in  which  the  Orphic 
literature  expressed  the  thought  that  the  world  and  man  found 
their  fundamental  unity  in  the  nature  of  god.  "Zeus  is  head, 
Zeus  the  middle,  of  Zeus  all  things  are  fashioned ; "  but  this  Zeus 
was  identical  with  Phanes  and  known  to  his  worshippers  as 
Dionysus. 

Religious  practice  was  determined  by  the  nature  of  the  soul. 
Through  the  ashes  of  the  Titans  man  had  in  himself  both  the 
principle  of  evil  and  the  divine  nature ;  the  divine  and  immortal 


246 


GREEK   RELIGION 


soul  was  bound  in  a  body  which  was  called  now  its  prison,  now  its 
grave.  It  was  the  sad  lot  of  man  to  suffer  retribution  after  death 
for  sins  in  this  world,  then  to  be  reborn  into  this  same  world  of 
sin  and  evil.  But  by  the  grace  of  Dionysus  and  Persephone, 
Orpheus,  who  himself  saw  the  lower  world,  had  taught  men  initia- 
tions by  which  the  chain  of  rebirths  might  be  broken  and  the 
soul  might  reach  its  true  freedom  with  the  gods.  This  goal  de- 
manded both  the  initiations  and  a  life  ritually  pure ;  "  many  are 
wandbearers,  few  Bakchoi,"  for  not  many  of  the  initiates  succeeded 
in  living  up  to  the  rules  of  purity. 

The  initiations,  so  far  as  we  can  learn,  were  rites  adopted  from 


FIG.  70. —  TERRA  COTTA  RELIEF  FROM  CAMPANIA 

Scene  of  initiation  in  Dionysiac  mysteries ;  the  figure  at  the  left  carries  the 
liknon  or  winnowing  basket. 

Crete,  Asia  Minor,  in  particular  Phrygia,  —  rites  savage  in  their 
origin  but  here  filled  with  high  spiritual  meaning.1  By  eating  the 
raw  flesh  of  a  bull  the  Cretans  possessed  themselves  of  the  divine 
life  which  they  believed  was  in  the  bull ;  so  in  Orphic  initiations 

1  Harrison,  Prolegomena  to  the  Study  of  Greek  Religion,  479  f. 


SEVENTH:  AND  SIXTH  CENTURIES         247 

the  revolting  rite  was  revived  to  symbolize  most  vividly  the  union 
of  the  worshipper's  soul  with  the  go;l  of  all  life.  Clay  and  pitch 
were  used  to  absorb  the  taint  of  evil  from  the  body ;  the  winnow- 
ing basket  symbolized  the  winnowing  of  man's  immortal  nature 
from  its  physical  husk  ;  all  contact  with  death  was  forbidden,  even 
so  that  animal  food  was  strictly  abjured ;  for  some  ritual  reason 
beans  were  tabooed,  and  woollen  garments  were  not  worn ;  more- 
over, there  were  special  piacular  rites  to  cover  special  dangers  or 
difficulties.  The  pure  life  which  should  follow  initiation  was  not 
so  much  the  avoidance  of  moral  evil,  though  this  was  included,  as 
the  avoidance  of  any  ritual  error ;  but  the  rules  of  avoidance  never 
developed  into  a  real  asceticism  in  Greece. 

Such  a  religion,  preached  by  apostles  and  fostered  in  "  churches," 
might  on  more  favorable  ground  have  developed  into  a  power  con- 
trolling social  life  by  its  priests  and  absorbing  within  itself  every 
expression  of  religious  instinct.  But  in  Greece  it  remained  a 
protestant  religion.  In  the  inner  circle  of  its  votaries  "at  Athens 
and  in  southern  Italy  the  doctrines  and  practices  were  kept  up 
until  the  religion  of  Greece  yielded  to  Christianity.  Like  every 
esoteric  religion,  it  was  profaned  before  the  world  by  men  who 
used  its  supernatural  claims  for  their  own  gain;  miracle-workers 
appealed  to  the  imagination  of  the  people,  begging  priests  to  their 
sympathy,  self-styled  officials  to  the  desire  for  occult  initiations. 
Such  superstition  found  little  sympathy  from  thinking  men.1  Yet 
we  must  believe  that  the  permanence  of  Orphism  was  due  to  its 
truths,  —  (i)  the  belief  that  all  existence  finds  its  ground  in  one 
god,  Dionysus-Zagreus,  Zeus,  or  whatever  name  be  used ;  (2)  the 
belief  in  the  divine  nature  of  the  soul,  and  (3)  the  practical  prin- 
ciple that  in  the  possibility  of  restoring  the  soul  to  union  with  the 
godhead  is  found  the  standard  and  goal  of  human  life. 

The  relation  of  Pythagoras  to   the  Orphic    movement   is   not 

entirely  clear.    The  second  and  third  of  the  points  just  mentioned, 

the  divine  nature  of  the  soul  and  the  duty  of  developing  in  the  soul 

its  own  divine  nature,  were  part  of  the  teaching  of  Pythagoras. 

1  Cp.  infra,  p.  271. 


248  GREEK   RELIGION 

For  Orphic  pantheism  it  would  seem  that  he  substituted  a  philo- 
sophic conception  of  the  world  as  controlled  by  number  and  har- 
mony. In  Croton  he  founded  a  community  resembling  the  Orphic 
"  churches,"  except  that  it  sought  to  realize  its  ethico-religious 
ideals  through  an  oligarchic  state. 

The  doctrines  of  Pythagoras  —  the  antithesis  of  the  soul  and 
body,  the  rebirth  of  the  soul  in  a  life  determined  by  its  past  deeds, 
and  the  return  of  the  soul  to  the  gods  as  its  ultimate  goal  —  be- 
came the  basis  of  a  political  constitution.  Along  with  ethical 
demands  (mainly  negative  in  character),  the  avoidance  of  animal 
food,  of  beans,  of  woollen  garments,  etc.,  was  imposed  as  the 
means  of  salvation.  Although  the  personality  of  Pythagoras 
brought  temporary  success  to  this  "  rule  of  the  saints,"  the  politi- 
cal power  of  Pythagoreanism  soon  came  to  a  disastrous  end.  The 
very  appearance  of  such  a  movement,  however,  bears  witness  to 
the  mystic  spirit  of  the  age. 


CHAPTER   IV 

RELIGION  IN  THE  FIFTH  AND  FOURTH  CENTURIES,  B.C.; 
HELLENISM   AT   ITS    HEIGHT 

1.  The  Persian  Wars  and  the  Exaltation  of  the  Athenian 
State.  — The  same  forces  which  had  been  at  work  in  society  dur- 
ing the  sixth  century  were  manifest  with  increasing  clearness 
during  the  centuries  that  followed.  The  old  aristocracy,  except 
where  it  had  been  supplanted  by  an  aristocracy  of  wealth,  main- 
tained itself  as  one  party  in  each  state.  In  Athens  it  was  losing 
ground  until  in  the  overthrow  of  the  thirty  tyrants  it  met  its  death- 
blow ;  and  in  the  fourth  century  Athens  represents  what  a  real 
democracy  could  accomplish  on  Greek  soil.  Long  before  the 
people  had  obtained  undisputed  control  in  the  state,  they  had 
secured  the  just  administration  of  law  and  full  freedom  of  individ- 
ual initiative.  Meantime,  commerce  continued  to  gain  in  impor- 
tance. With  the  growth  of  the  Athenian  empire  the  commercial 
supremacy  of  Athens  was  placed  on  such  a  firm  basis  that  it  was 
not  broken  by  the  Peloponnesian  War ;  and  for  Athens  commercial 
supremacy  was  the  concomitant  of  intellectual  supremacy. 

At  the  end  of  the  sixth  century  in  Athens  the  state  worship  of 
the  Olympian  gods  had  been  made  rich  and  imposing  by  the 
Peisistratid  rulers.  These  Athenian  gods  were  closely  united 
with  the  political  power  of  the  Athenian  state  ;  yet  up  to  this  time 
the  cults  of  each  locality  had  not  been  overpowered  by  the 
greater  festivals  of  the  city ;  and  in  the  city  of  Athens,  quite 
as  much  as  in  the  surrounding  country,  the  Orphic  movement  ex- 
ercised a  potent  sway  over  the  religious  nature.  For  the  period 
now  to  be  considered  Greek  religion  developed  along  three 

249 


250  GREEK   RELIGION 

lines ;  first  one  current  of  development,  then  another,  came  to  the 
front  as  it  was  favored  by  social  and  intellectual  conditions.  With 
the  growth  of  the  first  Athenian  confederacy  it  was  the  state  ideal 
of  religion,  the  Olympian  worship  as  expressing  the  religious  ideal 
of  the  Greek  state,  which  reached  its  highest  development.  Later 
the  mystic  religion,  the  religion  of  sentiment,  was  revived  to  meet 
a  need  which  the  state  religion  failed  to  satisfy.  And  thirdly,  the 
philosophical  phase  of  religion  was  developed  among  thinkers  who 
first  attempted  to  give  a  complete  rational  account  of  the  universe. 
While  these  three  currents  are  to  be  found  in  Athens  all  through 
this  period,  each  one  successively  is  the  controlling  element. 

It  has  already  been  assumed  that  during  this  period  the  atten- 
tion of  the  student  will  be  focussed  on  Athens.  The  position  of 
Athens  as  the  central  factor  in  Greek  life  is  due,  more  than  to  any 
other  one  cause,  to  the  fact  that  the  resistance  to  the  attack  of 
Persia  centred  in  Athens.  It  was  Athens  which  had  undertaken 
to  help  the  Ionian  colonies  in  Asia  Minor  against  the  great  king, 
and,  if  we  may  trust  our  historians,  the  force  of  the  Persian  attack 
on  Greece  proper  was  levelled  primarily  at  Athens.  In  the  effort 
to  meet  this  attack  and  repulse  it,  Athens  became  conscious  of  her 
position  as  the  leading  city  in  Greece.  The  very  devastation  of 
the  city  by  Persia,  followed  as  it  was  by  political  and  material  suc- 
cesses in  the  pan-Hellenic  world,  gave  an  opportunity  for  the  best 
talents  of  the  best  Greek  artists  to  rebuild  this  capital  of  Greece. 

At  the  beginning  of  the  fifth  century  poetry,  music,  sculpture 
and  painting,  philosophy,  medicine,  not  to  say  religion,  had  reached 
a  considerable  degree  of  development,  one  in  one  local  centre, 
another  in  another.  But  in  the  new  capital  of  Greece  first  the 
arts  and  then  the  sciences  were  gradually  absorbed.  A  poetry,  a 
sculpture,  an  architecture  that  were  truly  Athenian  were  developed 
out  of  the  best  in  each  local  centre,  and  in  each  of  these  lines 
Athens  became  the  exponent  of  Greek  progress.  What  was  true 
of  politics,  of  the  arts,  and  of  philosophy,  was  true  also  of  religion, 
though  in  a  somewhat  less  degree.  Certainly  it  is  safe  to  say  that 
any  progress  which  Greece  made  in  the  fifth  century  along  re- 


FIFTH   AND   FOURTH   CENTURIES'  251 

ligious  lines  was  made  at  Athens,  for  here  all  the  arts  were  devoted 
to  the  honor  of  the  state  through  the  state  religion. 

A  second  effect  of  the  Persian  wars  was  to  increase  wonderfully 
the  importance  of  the  Athenian  state  in  the  eyes  of  its  citizens. 
Commerce  for  the  time  being  was  checked  by  the  war ;  the  con- 
flicts of  different  parties  and  of  different  interests  within  the  state 
were  set  aside  by  larger  demands;  among  all  the  ideals  which 
appealed  to  men  the  ideal  of  the  free  state  was  given  a  command- 
ing position.  The  Athena  and  the  Dionysus  whose  worship  had 
been  developed  by  the  tyrants,  now  became  exponents  of  the  new 
conception  of  the  state ;  while  at  the  same  time  the  organization 
of  religion  was  once  for  all  made  subject  to  the  political  organi- 
zation of  the  state. 

One  particular  phase  of  this  exaltation  of  the  state  and  its 
interests  deserves  special  mention.  The  most  interesting  devel- 
opment of  religion  at  Athens  during  the  preceding  epoch  had  been 
the  growth  of  Orphism.  At  the  beginning  of  the  fifth  century  B.C. 
a  careful  observer  might  have  predicted  that  the  growing  power 
of  Persia  would  absorb  the  Balkan  peninsula  as  it  had  absorbed 
the  Greek  cities  on  the  coast  of  Asia  Minor,  and  that  under  the 
overlordship  of  Persia  the  Orphic  sect,  supported  by  an  alliance 
with  Delphi,  would  bring  Greek  religion  under  priest  control. 
That  a  church  of  mystics  with  their  interest  in  a  spiritual  world 
should  work  in  conjunction  with  an  outside  controlling  political 
power  is  a  phenomenon  by  no  means  unknown  in  the  history  of 
religion.  But  in  Greece  that  same  struggle  which  freed  the  Greek 
states  from  Persian  menace  furnished  the  antidote  to  the  spread 
of  organized  mysticism.  Thereafter  no  church  ever  threatened 
the  supremacy  of  the  state. 

2.  The  First  Athenian  Empire.  —  During  the  fifty  years  which 
followed  the  battle  of  Salamis  the  political,  social,  and  religious 
development  of  Athens  was  largely  the  evolution  of  those  forces 
which  had  been  set  in  motion  by  the  Persian  wars.  The  two  im- 
portant facts  for  the  history  of  religion  were  (i)  the  supremacy 
of  Athens,  and  (2)  the  ideal  of  the  state  which  came  to  control 


252  GREEK   RELIGION 

the  Athenian  conception  of  life.  The  first  point  may  be  dismissed 
with  the  remark  that  Athenian  supremacy  was  fundamentally 
different  from  the  hegemony  of  other  states  in  the  following  cen- 
tury, for  the  reason  that  in  Athens  every  phase  of  Hellenism  found 
its  highest  and  most  characteristic  expression.  Moreover,  when 
Greek  sculpture  became  Athenian  sculpture,  it  was  an  art  dedicated 
to  worship,  to  the  creation  of  plastic  ideals  of  the  gods,  and  the 
ornamentation  of  buildings  erected  for  these  gods.  The  suprem- 
acy of  Athens  in  literature,  also,  did  not  lie  along  secular  lines. 
The  great  literary  product  of  the  period  was  the  drama,  and  the 
drama  was  religious  in  its  origin,  in  its  themes,  and  in  its  per- 
formance. Nor  is  it  enough  to  say  that  Athenian  supremacy  in 
literature  and  art  was  attained  along  religious  lines.  The  political 
power  and  the  military  glory  of  the  city  were  embodied  in  the 
goddess  Athena  ;  her  temple  was  the  treasury  of  the  confederacy, 
and  its  greatness  was  best  seen  in  her  worship. 

The  second  point,  the  development  of  the  ideal  of  the  state 
as  such,  was  even  more  important  in  its  influence  on  Greek  re- 
ligion. It  is  an  interesting  fact  that  on  more  than  one  Greek 
acropolis  the  palace  of  the  Mycenaean  ruler  with  its  altar  for  the 
state  worship  had  given  place  to  the  temple  erected  for  its  gods 
by  the  later  state.  In  earlier  times  the  king  was  the  state ;  later 
the  ruling  power  might  be,  now  a  group  of  nobles  who  owed  their 
power  to  birth  or  wealth,  now  some  tyrant  who  had  succeeded  in 
wresting  control  from  the  nobles.  The  conception  that  the  state 
was  the  people,  that  devotion  to  the  state  was  something  more 
than  loyalty  to  a  man  or  to  a  ruling  class,  that  political  power  was 
to  be  given  by  the  people  to  the  man  of  their  choice  —  the  con- 
ception of  democracy  —  was  the  problem  which  at  this  time  the 
Athenians  were  trying  to  solve.  Though  the  leaders  whom  the 
people  chose  to  follow  were  generally  men  from  old  families, 
the  people  constantly  claimed  more  power  for  themselves.  And 
with  power  there  came  responsibility ;  with  the  successful  exercise 
of  power  the  demands  of  the  state  on  the  individual  were  more 
widely  recognized.  The  older  devotion  to  a  ruling  person  or 


FIFTH  AND   FOURTH   CENTURIES  253 

class,  together  with  attachment  to  the  locality  where  one  lived, 
was  merged  at  length  in  that  loyalty  to  the  state  which  we  call 
patriotism.  During  this  period  the  ideal  of  the  state  obtained 
such  a  hold  on  the  Athenians  that  its  influence  outlived  the  over- 
throw of  political  power,  the  attacks  of  the  Sophistic  philosophy, 
and  the  spread  of  private  luxury. 

The  successes  of  the  Athenian  state  in  this  period  did  more 
than  give  the  state  ideal  a  lasting  hold  ;  they  modified  for  the  time 
being  the  general  conception  of  life.  Such  an  epoch  with  its 
large  demands  on  men  and  its  ready  response  to  human  effort, 
made  life  seem  to  be  splendidly  worth  living.  There  was  no 
opening  for  pessimism  or  mysticism  or  a  philosophy  which  empha- 
sized any  other  ideal  than  that  of  action.  The  life  of  to-day  with 
its  brightness,  its  wonderful  opportunities,  its  quick  rewards,  left 
little  time  for  thought  of  the  past  or  meditation  on  the  future.  In 
the  religion  of  the  day  we  look  to  see  the  effect  of  optimistic 
activity  in  every  line  of  social  effort. 

It  has  already  been  pointed  out  that  the  victories  over  Persia 
brought  to  an  end  the  possibility  that  the  Orphic  phase  of  religion 
might  become  controlling  in  Greece.  To  sympathetic  individuals 
its  doctrines  still  appealed.  But  the  development  of  literature 
and  art  and  science  was  on  the  whole  antagonistic  to  any  form  of 
mysticism.  The  state  ideal  found  no  answering  harmony  in  the 
Orphic  conception  of  life.  More  than  anything  else,  the  success- 
ful activity  of  the  age  made  men  insusceptible  to  such  a  phase  of 
religion ;  something  more  tangible  and  more  virile  was  demanded 
by  these  men  of  action.  It  is  true  that  old  forms  of  worship, 
some  of  them  decidedly  mystic  in  tone,  were  retained  ;  but  ordi- 
narily they  were  brought  into  at  least  a  formal  connection  with  the 
Olympian  religion  of  the  state.  Thus  the  worship  of  Demeter  at 
Eleusis  was  made  a  state  cult,  and  the  usual  forms  of  state  worship 
were  in  some  degree  welded  on  to  the  older  rites.  Dionysus 
worship  also  was  adopted  by  the  state,  when  the  Athenian  drama 
had  developed  out  of  the  earlier  choruses  in  honor  of  the  wine  god. 
Moreover,  it  seems  that  the  syncretism  of  the  Orphic  theology 


254  GREEK   RELIGION 

left  its  mark  on  the  Olympian  divinities  of  the  state.  Though 
the  personality  of  each  god  was  distinct  enough  to  his  worshippers, 
the  thinker  and  the  poet  could  not  escape  the  belief  that  the  unity 
of  divine  rule  demanded  some  real  unity  of  the  divine  nature. 
Yet  after  all  allowance  has  been  made  for  the  influence  of  Orphic 
theology  and  for  the  continuance  of  worship  which  had  originally 
been  of  a  mystic  nature,  the  fact  remains  that  this  current  of 
religious  development  met  with  little  favor  under  the  first  Athenian 
confederacy. 

The  emphasis  on  the  state  and  on  successful  human  activity 
through  the  state  found  its  natural  expression  in  a  state  religion 
along  lines  suggested  by  the  epic.  The  epic  was  a  poetry  of 
strenuous  activity,  on  the  whole  happy  and  successful,  under 
divine  rulers.  It  was  the  great  monument  to  the  tendency  of  the 
Greeks  to  make  their  gods  universal  beings  whose  will  was  mani- 
fested in  the  government  of  the  world.  The  Olympian  ruling 
state  corresponded  at  many  points  to  the  state  ideal  which  was 
being  developed  at  Athens.  Naturally  enough,  the  Athenians 
found  here  that  phase  of  religion  which  was  best  suited  to  their 
new  conception  of  life.  The  fact  that  the  youth  of  the  city  were 
brought  up  on  the  Homeric  poems  as  the  central  element  in  their 
education,  made  it  inevitable  that  the  state  religion  should  develop 
along  these  lines. 

In  the  first  place  the  conception  of  the  gods  as  anthropo- 
morphic rulers  of  the  world,  and  of  the  world  as  an  expression 
of  their  divine  will,  obtained  a  new  and  different  hold.  The  doc- 
trine which  Theognis  and  Solon  had  uttered  in  their  poems  be- 
came the  general  philosophy  of  life,  accepted  alike  by  the  thinker, 
the  politician,  the  military  man.  Through  the  epic  much  the 
same  doctrine  had  made  the  gods  more  definitely  persons  and 
thus  more  human.  That  now  it  tended  to  remove  the  gods  further 
away  from  human  reach  and  human  sympathy,  that  it  made  of 
worship  a  splendid  tribute  to  such  august  powers,  that  religion 
became  a  matter  for  the  state  rather  than  for  the  individual,  were 
the  normal  results  of  the  changed  conditions. 


FIFTH   AND   FOURTH   CENTURIES  255 

And  the  same  conditions  which  made  the  gods  Olympian 
rulers  developed  a  belief  in  the  uprightness  of  their  rule.  On 
the  whole  the  gods  of  Homer  governed  justly,  though  the  moral 
code  of  simple  men  did  not  bind  their  divine  rulers  any  more 
than  their  human  rulers.  But  the  Athenians  of  the  fifth  century 
breathed  a  different  atmosphere.  Nominally,  their  own  rule  was 
based  on  ideals  of  justice  and  liberty  for  all ;  so  of  the  gods  they 
demanded  inflexible  justice.  And  religion  had  become  so  bound 
up  with  ethics  that  the  moral  law  could  only  be  interpreted  as  the 
holy  expression  of  the  divine  nature.  Earlier  ages  had  usually 
been  able  to  accept  tales  of  divine  immorality,  and  later  ages 
could  neglect  them  ;  this  period  alone  must  either  purify  myth  or 
set  it  aside  as  "untrue."  It  was  only  of  the  gods  conceived  pri- 
marily as  anthropomorphic  rulers  that  the  ideals  of  human  moral- 
ity must  be  predicated  in  a  literal  manner. 

Again  this  type  of  state  religion  demanded  that  the  validity  of 
the  gods  rest  on  the  same  basis  as  the  validity  of  the  state  itself. 
Not  that  the  opinion  of  the  individual  made  any  special  difference 
with  reference  either  to  the  state  or  to  its  gods,  so  long  as  the 
processes  of  politics  and  of  worship  went  on  undisturbed.  To 
insist  on  doubts  as  to  the  nature  of  the  gods,  however,  would  be 
talking  treason;  to  interfere  with  worship  would  be  an  act  of 
treason.  The  excitement  about  the  mutilation  of  the  hermae,  and 
the  prosecutions  on  the  charge  of  impiety  can  only  be  understood 
from  this  standpoint. 

The  particular  development  of  religious  institutions  in  this 
period  is  the  best  illustration  of  the  influence  of  the  state  ideal  on 
religion.  Just  as  Peisistratus  had  attempted  to  unify  the  people 
under  his  rule  by  uniting  them  in  magnificent  festivals  to  the  gods 
of  his  state,  so  democratic  Athens,  now  that  it  had  become  con- 
scious of  itself  as  a  great  state,  sought  to  express  its  greatness  by 
enriching  the  forms  of  its  worship.  The  wealth  which  flowed  in 
to  the  centre  of  the  confederacy  was  used  in  part  for  the  army 
and  navy,  in  part  it  was  devoted  to  the  service  of  the  gods ;  and 
both  uses  were  justified  on  the  ground  that  they  strengthened  the 


256  GREEK   RELIGION 

state.  The  Parthenon  was  erected  and  a  gold  and  ivory  statue  of 
Athena  Parthenos  placed  within  it,  for  it  was  Athena  who  was 
bringing  the  ideals  of  the  Athenian  state  into  the  realm  of  fact. 
Other  temples  were  erected,  images  were  dedicated,  and  votive 
offerings  brought  to  the  gods,  for  the  successes  of  the  state  were 
the  direct  manifestation  of  divine  favor.  The  processions  and 
sacrifices  in  honor  of  the  gods  were  made  more  splendid ;  athletic 
contests  and  musical  contests  were  added  to  the  ancient  ritual 
of  the  festivals ;  Apollo  and  Zeus,  Demeter  and  Athena,  simply 
received  what  was  their  proper  due  when  the  state  they  had  made 
strong  and  wealthy  returned  this  tribute  to  its  divine  rulers. 
And  when  the  drama  became  the  highest  tribute  of  the  Athenians 
to  their  gods,  Dionysus  took  his  place  as  one  of  these  divine 
rulers.  In  fact  it  is  difficult  to  discover  any  change  in  Greek  reli- 
gion during  this  epoch  which  was  not  due  to  this  state  ideal  and 
its  state  gods. 

During  the  fifth  century  more  than  in  any  other  period  the 
dominant  religious  conceptions  were  reflected  in  literature,  for 
literature  at  this  time,  like  painting  and  sculpture  and  architecture, 
was  largely  devoted  to  the  honor  of  the  state  gods. 

Early  in  the  century  Pindar  and  Aeschylus,  the  former  for 
Greece,  the  latter  primarily  for  Athens,  sought  to  interpret  the 
religious  meaning  of  the  Olympian  worship  and  to  harmonize 
it  with  the  highest  standards  of  ethical  and  religious  thought. 
The  extant  odes  of  Pindar  were  written  to  honor  individuals 
victorious  in  the  games.  They  breathe  a  spirit  of  reverence  for 
all  that  is  noble  and  pure  in  the  gods.  Pindar  rejects  the  story 
of  Tantalus  and  Pelops  as  a  slander,  nor  does  he  admit  strife  into 
the  divine  world.  Zeus  is  exalted  above  the  gods  as  himself  the 
fate  which  allots  to  each  man  his  destiny ;  his  mighty  mind  guides 
the  fortunes  of  the  men  he  loves ;  success  he  sends  to  those  who 
approach  him  reverently.  Or  again  it  is  god  who  "  accomplish- 
eth  all  things  according  to  his  wish — god  who  overtaketh  even 
the  winged  eagle,  and  outstrippeth  the  dolphin  of  the  sea,  who 
layeth  low  many  a  mortal  in  his  haughtiness,  while  to  others  he 


FIFTH  AND   FOURTH  CENTURIES  257 

giveth  glory  imperishable."1  In  particular  Pindar  loved  to  dwell 
on  Apollo,  god  of  light  and  truth,  giver  of  healing  and  musical 
harmony,  "  the  most  righteous  partner  "  of  father  Zeus.2  Along 
with  these  lofty  conceptions  of  the  gods,  the  poet  retained  myth, 
i.e.  sacred  story,  as  the  subject-matter  of  his  poetry.  But  his 
religious  standards  he  set  above  the  authority  of  tradition.  Irre- 
ligious myths  he  freely  rejected,  consciously  or  not  he  rested  the 
authority  of  myths  on  their  moral  and  religious  value  for  his  age. 
Polydeuces,  who  laid  aside  every  other  day  his  right  to  immortality 
that  he  might  enjoy  the  society  of  his  mortal  brother  Castor  in  the 
lower  world,  Jason's  endurance  in  pursuit  of  the  task  imposed  on 
him,  the  sufferings  of  Ino  and  Semele  crowned  by  entrance  on  a 
divine  life,  the  punishment  of  Ixion  for  base  ingratitude  and  of 
Tantalus  for  arrogance  and  presumption  —  such  are  the  themes 
which  are  presented  in  Pindar's  myths.  And  through  them  all 
runs  the  thought  that  men  are  descended  from  the  gods,  a  kinship 
not  forgotten  by  the  gods.  With  all  his  clear  vision  for  the  gods 
of  Olympus,  Pindar  is  not  deaf  to  the  doctrines  of  Orphism.  The 
life  after  death  is  fraught  with  good  or  evil  according  to  man's 
life  here ;  the  soul  returns  after  death  to  another  body ;  yet  its 
true  destiny  is  a  final  return  to  the  gods  to  which  it  is  akin. 

As  Pindar  honored  individuals  to  whom  Zeus  had  granted 
success,  so  Aeschylus  honored  the  state  in  which  men  realized 
true  freedom.  In  the  city  of  Athena  he  makes  the  goddess  say, 
"Reverence  and  Fear,  akin  to  the  citizens,  shall  check  injustice 
day  and  night  .  .  .  not  to  be  without  ruler  nor  to  be  ruled  by 
tyrant  is  my  counsel."3  Behind  the  state,  guarding  it,  working 
through  it,  is  God  "  the  cause  of  all,  the  power  that  fashions  all." 4 

"  May  God  good  issue  give  ! 
And  yet  the  will  of  Zeus  is  hard  to  scan : 

Through  all  it  brightly  gleams, 
E'en  though  in  darkness  and  the  gloom  of  chance 
For  us  poor  mortals  wrapt.  .  .  . 

1  Pyth.  2.  49.  8  Aeschylus,  Eitmen.  693  f. 

a  Pyth.  3.  28.  4  Agam.  1485. 

GREEK   RELIGION — I 


258  GREEK   RELIGION 

All  that  Gods  work  is  effortless  and  calm  : 
Seated  on  holiest  throne, 
Thence,  though  we  know  not  how, 
He  works  his  perfect  will."  * 

Apollo  is  the  mouthpiece  of  this  Zeus,  Athena  his  embodied 
wisdom;  in  all  the  conflict  of  life  the  divine  plan  works  itself 
out.  For  Aeschylus,  as  for  Pindar,  myth  is  a  sacred  history  which 
the  poet  uses  as  a  vehicle  for  great  spiritual  truths.  He  freely 
modifies  myth  with  this  end  in  view ;  the  nature  of  sin,  its  far- 
reaching  taint,  its  inevitable  punishment,2  the  purifying  effect  of 
toil  and  suffering  are  the  essential  doctrines  in  that  view  of  life 
which  the  poet  presents  by  means  of  myth. 

Much  the  same  stern  thoughts  are  presented  more  graciously 
by  that  favorite  of  the  gods,  Sophocles.  He  is  said  to  have  been 
a  man  devoted  to  their  worship,  guided  by  omens  they  sent, 
receiving  the  new  god  Asclepius  in  his  house  and  so  himself 
worshipped  after  death  as  the  "  Receiver "  (Dexion).  For 
Sophocles  also  Zeus  is  "all  powerful,  controlling  all  things,"3  whose 
divine  rule  nothing  escaped;  "great  Zeus  is  yet  in  heaven,  he  who 
watches  over  and  directs  all  things."4  All  ethical  law  has  its 
source  and  sanction  in  the  gods  :  "  May  it  be  my  lot  to  keep 
reverent  purity  in  every  word  and  deed  !  of  which  the  laws  are 
prescribed  on  high,  begotten  in  the  heavenly  aether :  Olympus 
alone  is  their  father  .  .  .  God  is  great  in  them  nor  yet  does  he 
wax  old  and  feeble."5  And  in  the  government  of  the  world  the 
holiness  and  purity  of  the  gods  is  revealed  though  an  Oedipus  or 
an  Antigone  be  crushed  in  the  process.  The  sin  of  Clytaemnestra, 
of  Laius,  of  Creon,  brings  a  long  train  of  evil  in  its  wake.  But  in 
the  case  of  Philoctetes  and  of  Oedipus  suffering  at  length  works 
out  the  purification  of  man  that  he  may  serve  as  an  instrument  of 
the  gods  for  good.  But  with  all  that  is  said  about  the  purity  of 
the  gods,  Sophocles  does  not  attempt  to  remodel  myth  on  an 

1  Aeschylus,  Suppl.  85  f.  trans.  Plumptre.  8  Sophocles,  Oed.  7)>r.  903. 

2  Again.  67  f.  *  Elec.  174  f. 

6  Oed.  Tyr.  864  f. 


FIFTH   AND   FOURTH   CENTURIES  259 

ethical  basis ;  he  simply  passes  over  what  does  not  suit  his  pur- 
pose. And  while  he  holds  fast  to  certain  fundamental  ethical 
principles,  he  is  far  from  reducing  religion  to  any  rationalistic 
basis.  The  mysterious  both  in  worship  and  in  the  nature  of  the 
gods  is  very  attractive  to  this  poet ;  to  pry  into  the  mysteries  of 
religion  seems  to  him  an  example  of  that  presumption  which  is  the 
essence  of  sin.  Inspiration  and  revelation  from  the  divine  powers 
he  is  very  ready  to  accept.  In  particular  there  is  an  evident 
purpose  in  his  extant  dramas  to  exalt  the  function  of  Apollo  at 
Delphi  as  the  mouthpiece  of  the  gods.  The  oracles  of  the  god 
always  prove  true  ;  once  when  they  seem  to  have  failed,  the  chorus 
utters  the  sentiment  that  the  worship  of  the  gods  at  Athens  should 
cease  at  once,  unless  the  revelation  of  the  divine  will  by  Apollo  is 
promptly  proved  to  be  true  —  and  the  apparent  failure  leads  to  an 
awful  justification  of  the  god's  foresight.1 

In  the  honor  paid  to  the  Delphic  god,  as  at  many  other  points, 
Herodotus  is  intimately  associated  with  Sophocles.  Herodotus 
accepts  the  oracles  and  the  presence  of  the  gods  in  human  life, 
while  he  freely  criticises  myth ;  for  in  religion  as  in  geography  and 
in  history  he  is  guided  by  a  somewhat  naive  sense  for  the  reality 
which  comes  within  the  range  of  experience.  Judging  by  the  facts 
of  human  life,  he  is  impressed  by  the  limitations  of  man  and  by 
the  power  of  the  gods ;  and  the  facts  suggest  to  him  gods  jealous 
of  their  prerogatives  rather  than  gods  primarily  just.  As  the  rela- 
tions of  Greece  and  Persia  seem  to  him  to  be  determined  by  the 
unreasonable  greatness  of  the  eastern  power  which  provokes  jealous 
retribution  from  the  gods,  so  each  stage  in  the  history,  the  account 
of  Croesus,  of  Polycrates,  of  Candaules,  of  Miltiades,  illustrates  the 
same  principle.  "  You  see  how  divine  lightning  strikes  very  great 
animals  and  God  does  not  permit  them  to  exhibit  themselves 
proudly,  while  small  ones  do  not  excite  his  wrath ;  and  thunder- 
bolts always  strike  large  buildings  and  tall  trees ;  for  God  loves  to 
bring  to  naught  anything  that  is  excessive  .  .  .  nor  does  he  permit 
any  but  himself  to  think  proud  thoughts."2  In  his  treatment 
l  Oed.  Tyr,  895  f.  «  Herodotus,  7. 10.  £ 


260  GREEK   RELIGION 

of  religious  phenomena  Herodotus  shows  his  critical  instinct  by 
analyzing  them  and  referring  some  to  a  Pelasgic  source,  others  to 
an  Egyptian  source.  And  with  all  his  curiosity  and  credulity  he 
does  not  hesitate  to  reject  what  does  not  seem  to  him  natural 
or  to  explain  away  some  marvels.  The  existence  of  griffins,  for 
instance,  he  refuses  to  believe ;  and  the  prophesying  doves  of 
Dodona  he  explains  as  priestesses  who  had  come  from  Egypt, 
and  who  were  called  doves  because  their  words  were  at  first  unin- 
telligible.1 Herodotus  felt  the  deepest  interest  in  the  great  shrines 
of  Greece  and  the  mysterious  doctrines  of  their  priests,  but  he  was 
often  deterred  by  awe  from  imparting  what  he  learned.  At  Delphi 
it  seems  that  he  obtained  much  material  for  his  history,  and  in  the 
earlier  part  of  his  work  he  appears  as  the  frank  defender  of  the 
claims  of  the  oracle.2 

3.  The  Peloponnesian  War. — The  latter  part  of  the  fifth  cen- 
tury at  Athens  constitutes  a  period  quite  as  distinct  in  its  social 
and  religious  tendencies  as  in  its  political  developments.  The 
Peloponnesian  war  was  the  great  struggle  which  Athenian  states- 
men had  long  foreseen,  and  which  ended  after  nearly  thirty  years 
in  the  temporary  overthrow  of  Athens.  Democracy  in  the  city 
had  become  impatient  of  wise  leadership ;  now  some  scheme  for 
world-power,  such  as  the  Sicilian  expedition,  now  some  sudden 
impulse  of  resentment,  as  in  the  condemnation  of  the  generals 
at  Arginusae,  proved  the  essential  weakness  of  Athens.  Wild 
schemes  for  social  betterment  of  the  masses  were  in  the  air. 
Moreover,  science  and  philosophy  were  beginning  to  make  a  wide 
impression  on  the  Athenian  view  of  life.  The  conception  of  nature 
as  a  reality  independent  of  and  including  both  gods  and  men,  the 
idea  of  natural  law  as  distinct  from  any  personal  will,  the  thought 
of  moral  and  legal  requirements  as  conventions,  the  validity  of 
which  might  well  be  questioned — such  were  some  of  the  main  prob- 
lems which  gradually  attracted  the  attention  of  thinking  people. 
As  mysticism  earlier  had  been  driven  into  the  background  by 

1  Herodotus,  2.  55. 

*"  Herodotus  and  the  Oracle  at  Delphi,"  Classical  Journal,  i  (1906)  37  £ 


FIFTH   AND   FOURTH   CENTURIES  261 

the  state  ideal  and  the  Olympian  religion,  so  now  the  state  phase 
of  religion  was  threatened  by  the  rising  current  of  intellectualism. 

What  may  be  termed  rationalism,  or  better  intellectualism,  in 
religious  matters  was  not  a  new  development  at  the  end  of  the 
fifth  century ;  it  was  only  its  reach  and  its  grasp  that  were  new.1 
Up  to  this  time  it  had  appeared  in  two  forms,  in  a  rationalism 
which  neglected  or  undermined  belief  in  the  gods,  and  in  a  reflec- 
tion which  modified  religious  conceptions  to  accord  with  ethical 
and  philosophical  principles.  The  religious  type  of  intellectualism 
appeared  as  early  as  Hesiod  and  reached  its  height  in  Pindar  and 
Aeschylus.  It  amounted  to  an  assertion  that  religion  is  not  merely 
a  matter  of  tradition,  but  rather  a  subject  to  be  tested  by  critical 
standards  in  order  to  determine  its  truth.  Among  the  historians, 
the  credulous  Herodotus  applied  the  same  standards  to  religion  as 
to  other  matters,  and  rejected  many  myths  on  the  ground  of  im- 
probability. Among  the  earlier  philosophers,  Empedocles  made 
a  real  place  for  the  gods  in  his  system  ;  he  followed  Xenophanes 
in  rejecting  all  traces  of  anthropomorphism,  but  he  spoke  with 
reverence  of  God  (Apollo?)  as  the  intelligence  of  the  universe; 
his  purpose  to  purify  belief  and  to  reform  worship  appeared  in 
much  of  his  work.  This  line  of  effort  accomplished  a  little  in 
raising  religious  belief  to  a  higher  plane,  but  until  a  much  later 
age  its  influence  was  limited  to  a  relatively  small  circle. 

The  negative  criticism  of  religion  had  played  a  larger  part  in 
the  work  of  the  early  philosophers.  The  absurdities  of  supersti- 
tion made  it  an  easy  mark  for  Xenophanes  and  Heracleitus,  while 
some  of  their  successors  were  rather  inclined  to  omit  all  reference 
to  religion.  The  conception  of  the  physical  world  as  an  ultimate 
fact,  and  of  law  as  a  fixed  natural  process,  seemed  to  leave  little 
place  for  religion.  It  was  possible,  however,  to  admit  the  exist- 
ence in  nature  of  beings  superior  to  man  who  influenced  him  for 
good  or  for  evil.  In  some  such  way  Democritus  admitted  a  place 
for  religion,  even  while  he  explained  away  many  myths  as  illusions 
caused  by  phenomena  of  the  heavens. 

1  Decharme,  La  critique  des  traditions  religieuses  chez  les  Grecs,  iii-vi. 


262  GREEK  RELIGION 

At  Athens,  soon  after  the  middle  of  the  fifth  century,  it  was 
rather  the  negative  phase  of  philosophy  which  attracted  the  atten- 
tion of  the  people.  Visiting  sophists  were  beginning  to  show  them 
how  easy  it  was  to  refute  not  only  so-called  philosophical  systems, 
but  also  the  demands  of  custom,  of  morals,  and  of  law.  As  law 
and  morals  were  useful  to  weak  members  of  society,  so,  they 
taught,  a  belief  in  gods  is  useful  in  making  the  strong  afraid  to 
injure  the  weak.1  The  strongest  proof  that  religion,  morality,  and 
law  belonged  to  social  convention  rather  than  to  the  realities  of 
nature  they  found  in  the  fact  that  among  different  peoples  belief 
and  custom  and  law  were  so  radically  different.  Man,  the  individ- 
ual man,  is  the  measure  of  all  things,  declared  Protagoras.  These 
doctrines  tended  to  develop  individualism  as  over  against  all  social 
authority ;  in  particular  the  authority  of  religious  belief  and  reli- 
gious practice  was  often  questioned. 

Yet  while  religion  remained  so  closely  connected  with  the  state 
as  in  Athens  during  the  fifth  century  B.C.,  public  attacks  on  reli- 
gion could  not  pass  unheeded.  The  avowed  "atheist"  was  con- 
demned by  public  opinion,  and  even  the  courts  took  cognizance 
of  charges  of  impiety.  Diagoras,  who  mocked  at  the  mysteries 
and  divulged  their  secrets,  had  a  price  set  on  his  head  ;  the  names 
of  Cinesias  and  of  Hippon  who  wrote  the  epitaph,  "  Death  has 
made  me  like  the  gods,"  were  handed  down  as  objects  of  con- 
tempt. For  one  and  only  one  period  in  Greek  history  thinking 
men  were  brought  into  court  on  the  charge  of  impiety.  Anax- 
agoras  was  driven  from  Athens  for  teaching  that  the  sun  was  (not 
a  god  but)  an  incandescent  stone.  Aspasia  was  brought  into 
court  on  the  charge  of  impiety.  Pheidias  was  forced  to  meet  the 
same  charge  because  he  had  placed  his  own  likeness  and  that  of 
Pericles  on  the  shield  of  his  Athena  Parthenos.  Socrates  was 
condemned  to  death  "  because  he  did  not  recognize  the  gods  of 
the  state,  but  introduced  new  divinities,  and  moreover,  because 
he  corrupted  the  youth." 2  Others  still  were  charged  with  intro- 
ducing the  worship  of  foreign  gods  without  permission  of  the 
1  Plato,  Leg.  io,  p.  889  E.  *  Plato,  Apol.  19  B. 


FIFTH  AND   FOURTH   CENTURIES  263 

state.  The  charge  of  impiety  brought  against  Alcibiades,  the 
profanation  of  the  mysteries,  itself  illustrates  the  weakened  ties  of 
religion,  in  that  such  an  act  seemed  to  be  possible.  Overt  acts  of 
this  sort  against  public  worship  would  always  subject  a  man  to 
punishment,  while  trials  for  impious  teaching  were  limited  to  a 
brief  period. 

In  a  word,  the  intellectual  movement  which  culminated  in  the 
study  of  science,  in  the  development  of  education,  and  in  the 
spread  of  popular  philosophy  at  Athens  toward  the  end  of  the  fifth 
century,  assumed  a  form  directly  hostile  to  organized  religion.  Its 
whole  influence  tended  to  weaken  traditional  faith  in  the  gods, 
nor  was  any  reconciliation  of  faith  and  philosophy  as  yet  in  sight. 

Had  not  the  state  ideal  in  society  and  the  state  phase  of  religion 
obtained  so  strong  a  foothold  in  the  half  century  preceding  the 
Peloponnesian  war,  they  would  hardly  have  survived  the  forces 
now  at  work.  The  new  education,  thoroughly  individualistic  in 
its  first  results,  was  a  menace  to  patriotism  and  the  demands  of 
the  state;  a  crude  democracy  resented  the  limitations  of  the 
constitution  ;  and  from  outside  the  very  existence  of  the  state  was 
threatened  by  the  war.  Yet  the  state  ideal  had  developed  strength 
enough  to  weather  the  attacks  from  without  and  from  within.  And 
with  the  state  ideal  the  state  religion  remained  in  control  of  the 
masses  of  the  people.  Men  listened  with  interested  curiosity  to 
the  speculations  of  a  Euripides ;  but  when  he  went  too  far,  his  bold- 
ness was  promptly  checked.  The  splendid  ritual  of  worship  went 
on  as  before,  the  worship  of  the  Athenian  people  to  gods  which  it 
publicly  recognized  as  supreme. 

So  far  as  the  mystic  side  of  religion  was  concerned,  the  condi- 
tions for  its  development  were  much  more  favorable.  Successful 
activity  did  not  draw  men's  thoughts  away  from  spiritual  things 
or  satisfy  their  aspirations  in  a  more  immediate  manner.  The 
gods  of  the  state  no  longer  showed  their  favor  to  every  undertak- 
ing, but  oftentimes  they  were  tried  and  found  wanting.  When 
siege  and  defeat  and  pestilence  made  this  world  look  dark,  the 
demand  for  "  redemption,"  for  religious  "  cures,"  came  to  be 


264  GREEK  RELIGION 

generally  felt.1  The  wandering  oracle-vender  found  a  ready  sale 
for  his  wares ;  the  priest,  who  promised  blessings  by  means  of  his 
initiations,  was  welcomed  among  those  who  felt  the  woes  of  life ; 
again  unusual  and  private  forms  of  worship  were  introduced  to 
meet  demands  which  ordinary  sacrifices  and  festivals  did  not 
satisfy.  Yet  the  public  organization  of  religion  in  the  worship  of 
the  state  gods  was  so  strongly  intrenched  that  it  was  modified  but 
little  by  such  innovations. 

Among  the  writers  of  this  period  Euripides  deserves  first  men- 
tion, not  because  his  work  begins  with  the  Peloponnesian  war,  but 
because  he  anticipated  the  spirit  which  then  prevailed.  He  re- 
jected some  of  the  old  myths,  e.g.  the  story  of  Leda  and  the  swan 
and  of  Erichthonius's  birth  from  the  soil,  not  on  moral  and  reli- 
gious grounds  like  Aeschylus,  but  because  they  seemed  to  him  im- 
probable. And  when  he  did  condemn  the  gods  for  immorality, 
his  tone  was  critical  rather  than  religious.  It  is  peculiarly  difficult 
to  estimate  correctly  the  religious  views  of  Euripides.  Writing 
under  the  influence  of  the  new  movement  of  thought  at  Athens, 
yet  himself  a  poet  and  no  philosopher,  keenly  alive  to  human 
weaknesses  and  human  ills,  yet  honoring  that  ideal  which  made 
Athens  great,  he  presents  problems  rather  than  principles  in  his 
tragedies.  Retribution  to  the  sinner  is  a  fact  of  experience,  but 
who  knows  if  it  comes  from  the  gods  worshipped  at  Athens? 
And  who  knows  of  the  soul  and  its  destiny,  beyond  the  fact  that 
insight,  energy,  virtue,  ordinarily  bring  their  reward  in  this  present 
life?  "  The  gods,  whatever  the  gods  are  " 2  sounds  like  the  critical 
scepticism  of  a  sophist.  To  interpret  Zeus  now  as  Intelligence,  now 
as  Necessity,  or  to  make  the  Erinyes  the  hallucinations  of  a  disor- 
dered brain,  suggests  an  attempt  to  rationalize  the  gods.  Such  sug- 
gestions and  problems  proved  intensely  interesting  to  the  audience 
when  the  poet  did  not  go  too  far,  even  though  the  questionings  did 
not  meet  with  general  assent.  .Certainly  the  attacks  on  Euripides 
prove  his  influence.  Even  in  the  Bacchantes  the  poet,  now  an 
old  man,  does  not  entirely  change  his  view.  The  outcome  of  his 

l  Plato,  Politic.,  2,  p.  364  B.  2  Orest.  418. 


FIFTH  AND   FOURTH   CENTURIES  265 

experience  as  developed  in  this  tragedy  is  simply,  "  Whatever  the 
gods  are,  let  us  bow  to  them." 

The  old  comedy  as  represented  by  Aristophanes  was  much 
closer  to  the  thought  of  the  people  than  was  tragedy.  Religious 
parody,  which  was  so  striking  a  feature  of  Aristophanes's  work,  was 
not  inconsistent  with  religious  belief  and  practice  in  Greece  from 
Homer  on.  Not  simply  Heracles  and  Hermes  and  Dionysus  were 
the  objects  of  Aristophanes's  buffoonery ;  Zeus  himself  must  furnish 
fun  for  his  audience.  Not  simply  the  quack  diviner  and  the 
vender  of  oracles,  but  the  priest  of  the  state  religion  also  was  held 
up  to  ridicule.  Nor  was  the  worship  of  Asclepius  or  Dionysus  or 
Demeter  free  from  the  poet's  gibes.  Yet  in  Aristophanes  there 
was  no  denial  of  the  gods,  nothing  that  was  felt  by  his  audience  to 
be  a  religious  profanation.  On  the  contrary  the  tone  of  his  work 
was  on  the  whole  conservative  in  religion  as  in  other  matters.  In 
the  Clouds  he  appears  as  the  direct  defender  of  the  old  ideals  of 
life  and  the  old  religion.  A  sincere  religious  spirit  seems  to  per- 
vade his  hymns  to  the  gods.  He  is  first  of  all  a  comedian,  but 
just  for  this  reason  he  reflects  the  views  of  his  hearers.  In  fact 
his  fun  always  presupposes  (i)  an  elaborate  state  ritual  universally 
accepted,  and  (2)  a  general  belief  in  the  actual  power  and  pres- 
ence of  the  gods.  Whatever  his  own  views  may  have  been,  the 
faithfulness  of  Aristophanes  to  his  art  made  his  comedies  a  wit- 
ness to  the  essential  religiousness  of  Athens  at  the  end  of  the  fifth 
century. 

Much  the  same  conclusion  as  to  the  hold  of  religion  on  the 
people  may  be  drawn  from  the  history  of  Thucydides  and  from 
the  orations  of  Antiphon.  Thucydides  contrasts  sharply  the 
prophecies  of  the  oracle-mongers  and  the  genuine  words  of  the 
Delphic  Apollo ' ;  while  condemning  the  superstitions  of  a  Nicias, 
he  notes  the  enfeebled  fear  of  the  gods  and  of  divine  justice  as 
one  of  the  evils  produced  by  the  Peloponnesian  war2;  he  refers 
to  the  epic  and  some  particular  myths  with  no  note  of  criticism. 
Although  he  gives  no  indications  of  devoutness  on  his  own  part, 

1  Thucydides,  2.  54;  cp.  5.  103.  2;  5.  26.  3.  2  Ibid.,  3.  82.  6;  cp.  2.  53. 


266  GREEK   RELIGION 

he  clearly  recognizes  the  importance  of  religion  as  it  existed  at 
Athens.  So  Antiphon  continually  bases  his  argument  on  popular 
belief  in  a  divine  justice  which  punishes  the  guilty,  and  in  a  divine 
purity  which  turns  away  from  a  man  or  a  city  polluted  with  evil. 
These  statements  might  be  mere  rhetoric,  but  they  would  lose 
their  value  as  rhetoric  unless  they  were  addressed  to  a  people 
religiously  inclined. 

4.  The  Fourth  Century.  —  With  the  close  of  the  fifth  century 
we  may  almost  say  that  the  religious  development  of  Greece  was 
ended  ;  none  of  the  later  changes  can  be  regarded  as  new  move- 
ments of  primary  importance,  and  on  the  whole  the  later  history 
of  religion  in  Greece  is  concerned  with  the  degeneration  and  dis- 
appearance of  the  forces  which  at  this  time  were  in  operation. 
Only  philosophy  had  not  said  its  last  word  on  matters  of  religion, 
but  the  teaching  of  philosophy  was  confined  to  a  very  limited 
range.  For  the  people  the  old  religion  was  to  become  little  more 
than  a  form,  a  form  which  could  offer  small  resistance  to  the 
cruder  but  more  vital  cults  of  Asia  Minor,  Syria,  and  Egypt. 

The  fourth  century  at  Athens  in  the  first  place  was  marked  by 
a  further  development  of  the  individualistic  spirit.  The  teaching 
of  the  Sophists  had  been  accepted  by  relatively  few  persons, 
but  the  centrifugal  forces  set  in  motion  at  the  time  of  the 
Peloponnesian  war  had  a  far  wider  influence  than  direct  teaching. 
In  politics  individualism  showed  itself  in  a  loss  of  public  spirit. 
When  men  began  to  ask  whether  they  existed  for  the  good  of  the 
state,  or  the  state  for  their  welfare  and  protection,  it  was  difficult 
to  enforce  the  demands  of  patriotism.  Moreover  the  loss  of 
political  power  had  for  Athens  a  surprisingly  small  effect  on  her 
commerce,  or  on  her  intellectual  and  artistic  prestige.  Naturally 
the  thought  of  the  state  as  such  gave  way  before  the  thought  of 
the  larger  Hellenic  world  ;  a  cosmopolitan  spirit  began  to  prevail, 
which  made  the  claims  of  society  rest  lightly  as  compared  with 
the  claims  of  individual  welfare. 

The  spread  of  education  worked  in  the  same  direction.  The 
self-development  which  it  proposed  as  an  end  was  diametrically 


FIFTH   AND   FOURTH   CENTURIES  267 

opposed  to  self-devotion  for  the  community,  for  the  more  a  man's 
attention  was  focussed  on  the  training  of  his  own  powers  as  an  end 
in  itself,  the  less  he  was  inclined  to  regard  himself  merely  as  one 
fraction  of  the  state. 

The  spread  of  private  luxury  was  a  cause  as  well  as  a  symptom 
of  individualism.  In  a  striking  passage  Demosthenes  points  out 
that  the  magnificence  which  the  fifth  century  had  devoted  to 
temples  and  public  buildings,  was  now  lavished  on  the  houses  of 
the  rich.1  The  productions  of  great  painters  and  sculptors, 
because  so  often  they  were  used  for  mere  adornment  and  private 
pleasure,  were  often  created  with  no  higher  end  in  view.  The 
great  works  in  literature  were  not  poetry  but  prose,  not  dramas  for 
public  performance  but  essays  for  the  drawing-room  or  the  study  ; 
they  were  not  grand  and  imposing  but  rather  were  finished  with 
delicate  grace.  The  effect  of  private  luxury  in  Greece  was  all  the 
more  baneful  for  higher  ideals  of  life  because  it  was  not  satisfied 
in  a  barbaric  or  oriental  manner. 

It  is  but  looking  at  this  individualism  from  another  point  of 
view  to  say  that  the  fourth  century  differed  from  the  fifth  in  the 
relative  absence  of  great  controlling  ideals.  Not  simply  patriotism, 
political  honor  also,  and  military  honor  had  a  weaker  hold  ;  prizes, 
crowns,  honorary  decrees,  were  needed  as  rewards  for  public  ser- 
vice. The  objective  activity  which  had  given  to  life  its  tone,  now 
yielded  to  self-conscious  reflection,  to  musing  introspection,  often 
to  a  note  of  ennui  and  melancholy.  In  other  phases  of  life  as 
well  as  in  religion  the  age  of  faith  had  gone  by. 

The  change  in  the  spirit  of  the  age  is  strikingly  reflected  in  the 
modified  conception  of  the  gods.  The  gods  on  the  Parthenon 
frieze,  like  the  statue  of  Athena  inside  the  temple,  are  divine 
counterparts  of  the  statesmen  who  were  making  Athens  great ;  for 
these  gods,  too,  stood  for  high  ideals  and  for  the  energy  which 
made  those  ideals  effective.  In  contrast  with  these  types  of  the 
gods  in  the  fifth  century,  the  statue  of  Peace  carrying  her  child 
Wealth  has  rightly  been  regarded  as  a  symbol  of  the  spirit  of  the 
1  Demosthenes,  3.  25. 


268  GREEK   RELIGION 

following  century.  The  Aphrodite  unrobing  for  the  bath,  which 
Praxiteles  made  for  her  Cnidian  temple,  was  the  goddess  of  a 
people  devoted  to  the  love  of  beauty  and  grace.  And  the  Her- 
mes found  at  Olympia  still  repeats  its  message  that  the  Greek 
youth  of  Praxiteles's  time  found  in  self-conscious  musing  the 
natural  sequence  to  a  gymnastics  and  an  education  which  aimed 
to  give  the  body  and  the  mind  their  perfect  development. 

Such  changes  in  the  conception  of  the  gods  seem  to  have 
brought  no  corresponding  change  in  the  forms  of  worship.  The 
gods  were  still  part  of  the  conception  of  the  state  and  their  wor- 
ship was  one  phase  of  the  state's  activity.  The  orators  of  the 
fourth  century  not  only  use  the  gods  to  swear  by  and  to  conjure 
by,  they  refer  again  and  again  to  the  proverbial  care  of  the  gods 
for  Athens,  and  in  the  blessing  of  the  gods  they  find  hope  for  the 
city  in  the  future.  Devotion  to  the  state  was  an  underlying  motive 
to  keep  up  the  ancient  forms  of  worship  at  the  shrines  of  the  city, 
while  on  the  other  hand  the  influence  of  the  public  festivals  still 
tended  to  keep  up  the  consciousness  of  common  political  bonds 
among  the  people.  In  his  first  Philippic 1  Demosthenes  complains 
that  the  military  officials  remain  at  home  to  take  charge  of  religious 
processions  instead  of  engaging  in  service  at  the  front,  and  that 
the  organizing  genius  of  the  city  as  well  as  its  funds  are  devoted 
to  religious  festivals  rather  than  to  the  war  against  Macedon.  It 
would  not  be  fair  to  say  that  the  enjoyment  of  the  Dionysia  or  the 
Panathenaea  was  the  reason  why  such  pains  were  taken  in  their 
celebration,  though  certainly  popular  pleasure  was  one  end  in 
view.  The  festivals  were  maintained  partly  for  pleasure,  partly  for 
genuine  religious  motives,  but  largely  because  they  were  institu- 
tions hallowed  by  long  observance  on  the  part  of  the  state.  So 
far  as  Demosthenes  is  concerned,  it  is  hard  to  doubt  the  genuine- 
ness of  his  appeals  to  the  gods,  yet  there  is  no  evidence  of  deep 
religious  feeling  on  the  part  of  either  audience  or  speaker.  If 
Demosthenes  is  contrasted  with  Antiphon,  we  might  well  believe 
that  the  former  was  the  more  religious  individual ;  we  can  hardly 
l  Demosthenes,  4.  26  and  35. 


FIFTH   AND   FOURTH   CENTURIES  269 

believe  that  his  hearers  found  the  same  meaning  in  religion  as  did 
those  who  listened  to  Antiphon. 

In  the  fine  passage  on  the  beginning  of  the  sacred  war 
Aeschines  almost  persuades  his  readers  now,  as  he  claims  to  have 
persuaded  his  hearers  then,  that  the  oath  and  its  consequences 
were  a  dread  reality.1  The  religious  emotions  of  these  delegates 
were  strong  enough  to  be  used  with  effect  by  the  political  speaker, 
but  even  under  the  shadow  of  the  Delphic  oracle  the  most  solemn 
form  of  devotion  had  not  checked  the  cultivation  of  the  sacred 
plain.  The  Greek  gods  were  made  for  man,  not  man  for  the 
gods. 

Difficult  as  it  is  to  use  the  pleas  of  a  lawyer,  the  speeches  of  a 
statesman,  the  pamphlets  of  a  teacher  of  rhetoric,  in  getting  at 
the  religious  ideas  of  the  people,  the  testimony  of  the  orators  is 
fairly  simple.  There  is  abundant  evidence  that  the  state  kept  up 
the  forms  of  religious  worship  in  all  their  magnificence.  That 
faith  in  the  gods  was  at  all  a  ruling  principle  in  human  life,  or 
that  genuine  religious  emotions  were  stirred  and  satisfied  by  this 
worship,  we  find  no  proof  in  the  extant  works  of  the  orators. 
But  Athenian  gods  had  made  Athens  great,  and  in  the  struggles 
to  revive  that  greatness  the  observances  of  worship  were  loyally 
maintained. 

The  changes  in  worship  during  this  period  were  largely  due  to 
a  practical  (not  to  say  a  superstitious)  impulse  on  the  part  of 
individuals.  The  presence  of  this  practical  vein  in  religious 
matters  at  the  beginning  of  the  fourth  century  is  seen  in  the 
attitude  of  Xenophon.  His  writings  teem  with  references  to  the 
forms  of  religion.  In  the  retreat  of  the  ten  thousand  he  himself 
depended  constantly  on  dreams  and  omens  to  ascertain  the  will 
of  the  gods  ;  his  fear  of  divine  anger  was  a  governing  principle  ; 
his  ideal  cavalry  officer  would  act  according  to  the  will  of  the 
gods,  and  his  hunting  dogs  were  to  be  loosed  with  a  prayer  to 
Apollo  and  Artemis.2  Such  devotion  to  the  forms  of  religion  on 
the  part  of  a  typical  Athenian  soldier  testifies  to  the  hold  of  reli- 

1  Aeschines,  3.  107  f.  2  Xenophon,  Hipparch.  i.  i ;   Cyneget.  i.  i  f. 


270  GREEK  RELIGION 

gious  practice  among  the  people.  Even  though  a  man  of  shallow 
nature  had  no  sense  for  the  deeper  meaning  of  religion,  he  saw 
its  practical  possibilities  in  controlling  what  was  otherwise  outside 
his  power ;  just  because  religion  had  a  practical  value,  the  soldier 
and  the  merchant  could  not  afford  to  neglect  it. 

The  same  practical  impulse  largely  accounts  for  the  fact  that  at 
the  beginning  of  the  fourth  century  the  worship  of  Asclepius  was 
established  as  one  of  the  state  cults.  Heroes  had  received  the 
prayer  of  the  sick  for  healing  in  Attica,  but  no  hero  had  ever 
gained  such  a  reputation  as  the  god  Asclepius  for  power  to  over- 
come disease.  His  reputation  had  brought  invalids  in  great  num- 
bers to  Epidaurus ;  the  shrine  had  assumed  the  form  of  a  great 
hospital  for  the  care  of  the  sick  under  divine  direction  ;  its  success 
is  still  attested  by  the  offerings  of  men  who  there  had  found  heal- 
ing. Now  the  journey  to  Epidaurus  might  be  saved  and  the  gifts 
of  the  god  made  more  accessible  by  introducing  a  branch  of  this 
religious  hospital  at  Athens.  First  in  private  houses  Asclepius 
worship  was  begun  at  Athens,  and  soon  priests  with  their  sacred 
serpents  and  other  paraphernalia  of  worship  were  brought  to  the 
city  that  the  cult  might  be  established  in  due  form.  The  south 
side  of  the  Acropolis  proved  a  spot  admirably  adapted  to  the 
medical  purpose  of  this  worship.  The  ruins  of  its  temples,  its 
sacred  spring,  and  its  buildings  for  the  care  of  the  sick  still  attest 
the  importance  that  a  new  worship  could  gain  when  it  offered 
such  practical  blessings  to  its  worshippers. 

This  practical  impulse  showed  itself  also  in  the  effort  to  ascer- 
tain and  control  the  future  by  some  stronger  means  than  the 
routine  sacrifices  of  the  state  religion.  The  revival  of  the  Orphic 
movement,  to  which  Plato  if  not  Demosthenes  bears  witness,  was 
due  quite  as  much  to  the  desire  for  higher  potencies  to  control 
one's  destiny  as  to  any  real  effort  for  spiritual  ends.  The  Orphic 
conception  of  life  was  no  doubt  gratifying  to  some  because  it 
placed  the  standard  of  genuine  happiness  and  the  goal  of  human 
life  in  another  phase  of  existence.  And  there  was  much  about 
the  Orphic  theology  which  appealed  to  thinkers  like  Plato ;  his 


FIFTH  AND    FOURTH   CENTURIES  27! 

myths  adopt  Orphic  imagery ;  his  whole  account  of  the  soul,  its 
origin,  and  its  destiny  is  based  on  Orphic  conceptions.  But 
Plato's  allusions  to  Orphic  "  initiations "  and  the  condemnation 
of  such  religious  exercises  by  Demosthenes l  indicate  that  they 
were  what  more  than  anything  else  appealed  to  the  people  in 
mystic  religion.  Because  the  priests  promised  blessedness  here 
and  hereafter  to  their  adherents,  and  because  the  ritual  seemed 
so  effective  in  reaching  the  unseen  powers  that  control  life,  this 
type  of  religion  had  a  wider  influence  than  at  any  time  during  the 
fifth  century. 

Much  the  same  influences  were  at  work  in  the  introduction  of 
foreign  worships  into  Attica.2  These  were  brought  in  the  first 
instance  by  foreigners  themselves  who  had  obtained  permission 
to  establish  the  worship  of  their  native  gods  at  the  point  where 
they  had  settled,  i.e.  mainly  in  the  Peiraeus.  That  Athenian 
citizens  should  seek  admission  to  the  inner  circle  of  the  wor- 
shippers of  Bendis  or  Kottyto  seems  strange  at  first  sight.  No 
doubt  the  intensity  of  these  rites  produced  a  refreshing  sense  of 
genuineness  which  attracted  many.  Still  it  was  rather  the  practi- 
cal impulse,  the  impulse  to  control  the  mysterious  forces  in  the 
world  for  the  benefit  of  the  individual,  which  accounts  for  this 
tendency.  Because  the  state  religion  had  become  stereotyped 
form,  great  as  was  the  respect  in  which  this  form  was  held,  it  did 
not  stand  in  the  way  of  any  new  worship  which  met  a  practical 
need. 

Over  against  the  old  forms  of  worship  and  the  new  more  super- 
stitious phase  of  religion,  the  philosophical  criticism  of  religious 
conceptions  went  on  unhindered.  The  relation  of  philosophy 
and  religion  is  to  be  considered  in  a  later  chapter,  but  the  result 
for  this  period  may  be  briefly  stated  here.  The  sharp  antagonism 
between  philosophy  and  established  religion  came  to  an  abrupt 
end,  first  because  people  having  become  accustomed  to  the  criti- 
cism of  the  gods  realized  that  its  immediate  effect  was  harmless, 
and  secondly  because  philosophy  began  to  take  a  broader  view 

1  Plato,  Politia,  z,  p.  364  B ;  Demosthenes,  18.  259  f.  2  Cp.  supra,  p.  127. 


272  GREEK  RELIGION 

of  what  religion  meant.  In  his  Republic  Plato  did  not  discuss 
religious  institutions  but  referred  them  to  the  Delphic  oracle1;  a 
city  without  gods  was  to  him  inconceivable.  The  name  "  God," 
which  Plato  and  Aristotle  both  apply  to  the  hypothetical  being 
in  which  their  systems  culminated,  would  be  meaningless  except 
as  these  thinkers  recognized  some  deep  reality  in  the  religious 
sentiment  of  their  day.  While  religion  as  such  had  little  directly 
to  hope  from  philosophical  investigation,  the  indirect  result  was 
by  no  means  small.  In  contrast  with  the  materialistic  scepticism 
which  occupied  popular  attention  at  the  end  of  the  fifth  century, 
philosophy  was  now  both  positive  and  idealistic.  Just  in  so  far 
as  the  successors  of  Socrates  recognized  thought  as  the  great 
fact  in  the  world,  and  found  in  the  ideals  cherished  by  individuals 
and  by  society  the  most  important  realities  of  life,  the  path  was 
open  for  philosophy  to  become  the  handmaid  of  religion.  The 
immediate  results  of  a  deeper  philosophy  were  never  very  large 
for  Greek  religion,  for  it  had  no  vitality  to  assimilate  the  fruits  of 
thought ;  it  is  only  in  the  history  of  Christianity  that  the  meaning 
of  Greek  philosophy  for  religion  came  to  be  realized. 

1  Plato,  Politia,  4,  p.  427  B. 


CHAPTER  V 
THE   OUTCOME   OF   GREEK    RELIGION 

1.  Religion  in  the  Hellenistic  Age. — With  the  conquests  of 
Alexander  the  internal  development  of  Hellenism  all  but  ceased, 
and  history  is  concerned  with  its  external  development.  The 
scene  is  shifted  from  the  Balkan  peninsula  to  a  world  which 
extended  from  India  to  Spain,  from  Scythia  to  Egypt ;  and  for  this 
world  the  centre  of  culture  was  no  longer  Athens,  but  successively 
Alexandria,  Pergamon,  Antioch,  Rhodes.  That  the  Greek  lan- 
guage followed  the  army  and  became  a  common  medium  of  com- 
munication in  Egypt,  Syria,  and  the  far  East  seems  strange  enough ; 
it  is  almost  incredible  that  there  should  be  truth  in  Plutarch's  state- 
ment1 that  Homer  was  commonly  read  in  Asia,  that  "children  of 
the  Persians,  of  the  inhabitants  of  Susa,  and  of  the  Gedrosians 
played  the  tragedies  of  Euripides  and  Sophocles,"  that  inhabitants 
of  India,  Bactria,  and  the  Caucasus  worshipped  the  Greek  gods ; 
yet  as  to  the  spread  of  Greek  civilization  there  can  be  no  doubt. 
"  Greek  culture  alone  had  the  capacity  to  embrace  and  interpret 
all  the  rest  of  the  world ;  its  spirit  made  a  universal  appeal 
through  poetry,  art,  and  philosophy;"2  and  in  the  hands  of 
Alexander  this  influence  became  operative.  The  history  of  reli- 
gion in  this  epoch  is  concerned  mainly  with  the  part  which  religion 
played  in  the  spread  of  Hellenism. 

So  far  as  Greece  itself  is  concerned,  the  student's  interest  is 
primarily  in  such  religious  changes  as  prepare  the  way  for  the 
wider  influence  of  Greek  religion.  The  decay  of  sectional  patriot- 

1  Plutarch,  De  Alexandra  fortuna,  5,  p.  328  C,  D. 

2  Burckhardt,  Griechische  Kulturgeschichte,  4.  423. 
CREEK  RELIGION  —  1 8  273 


274  GREEK  RELIGION 

i 

ism,  patriotism  to  one's  own  particular  city-state,  inevitably  meant 
for  Greece  the  end  of  patriotism  as  a  determining  ideal  in  human 
life ;  for  cosmopolitanism  was  merely  devotion  to  no  state.  The 
result  was  twofold.  On  the  one  hand  the  career  of  the  statesman 
could  no  longer  appeal  to  men  of  real  capacity  and  high  ideals ; 
unless  their  ambition  were  satisfied  in  the  amassing  of  wealth  or  in 
the  business  of  war,  they  must  turn  to  science  or  to  philosophy. 
On  the  other  hand  a  religion  which  was  intimately  bound  up  with 
the  state  lost  much  of  its  hold  on  men  who  no  longer  cared  for 
the  state ;  they  might  observe  its  forms  from  tradition,  or  in  order 
to  keep  up  the  old  pomp  and  splendor,  but  the  ritual  had  lost  its 
power  to  meet  a  genuine  religious  need.  The  first  of  these  results 
helped  the  new  spirit  of  research  which  had  been  kindled  by  Aris- 
totle. For  religion,  the  only  important  effect  of  philological  and 
scientific  investigation  was  that  it  increased  the  tendency  of  the 
Greeks  to  see  in  their  own  gods  other  forms  of  the  gods  wor- 
shipped in  Egypt  and  in  the  East  —  a  "theocrasy  "  which  had  no 
mean  importance  as  a  factor  in  the  spread  of  Greek  culture,  for 
it  gave  a  cosmopolitan  aspect  to  an  essentially  sectional  religion. 
But  on  philosophy  both  of  these  results  had  an  effect  which  was 
deep  and  far  reaching  for  the  history  of  Greek  religion. 

Already  in  the  fourth  century  the  need  of  a  religion  more  real 
than  the  pageantry  of  state  worship  had  lent  a  strong  impulse  to 
philosophy.  From  Plato  on,  the  leaders  of  thought  had  recog- 
nized this  need,  and  their  followers  had  been  inspired  quite  as 
much  by  the  desire  for  a  really  religious  explanation  of  the  world  as 
for  one  that  was  only  metaphysical.  Now  with  the  downfall  of  the 
city-state  and  the  consequent  weakening  of  the  religion  connected 
with  it,  men  could  only  turn  to  foreign  superstition  or  to  philoso- 
phy to  satisfy  this  need.  Moreover  there  was  little  to  satisfy  men 
of  higher  nature  except  in  science  and  in  philosophy.  That  under 
these  circumstances  ethical  philosophy  should  in  some  measure 
take  the  place  of  religion,  that  the  philosopher  should  dispense 
spiritual  warning  and  comfort,  that  his  moral  ideals  should  be  a 
somewhat  effective  antidote  to  materialism,  superstition,  and  self- 


THE   OUTCOME  OF  GREEK  RELIGION         275 

ish  greed,  is  a  striking  tribute  to  the  higher  element  in  the  Greek 
nature.  The  search  for  relief  from  the  evils  of  life,  which  the 
Greeks  called  the  effort  for  salvation  (a-oirrjpia),  has  at  many  peri- 
ods in  human  history  driven  men  to  luxury  and  selfish  pleasure  or 
again  to  asceticism  or  to  superstitious  rites ;  in  later  Greece,  as  in 
these  days,  it  produced  "  Ethical  Culture  "  societies. 

The  attitude  of  these  later  philosophers  to  the  old  Greek  gods 
is  a  relatively  unimportant  matter,  except  as  it  illustrates  the  strong 
hold  of  traditional  religion  on  the  people  generally.  Only  the 
Sceptics,  who  introduced  the  universal  principle  of  doubt,  ex- 
pressed doubt  as  to  the  existence  of  the  Olympian  deities;  phi- 
losophers who  had  a  system  of  thought  included  the  gods  in  this 
system.  The  Epicureans  followed  the  founder  of  that  school  in 
admitting  their  existence  as  superior  beings  even  while  they  denied 
them  any  potent  influence  in  human  affairs.  The  attitude  of  the 
Stoics  varied  at  different  times.  An  allegorical  explanation  was 
frequently  given,  or  the  gods  were  classed  as  intermediate  beings 
between  men  and  ultimate  (divine)  being.  Stoics  of  religious 
nature  like  Chrysippus  expressed  their  attitude  toward  the  funda- 
mental unity  of  the  world  in  purely  religious  language.  So  far, 
then,  as  the  wider  spread  of  Greek  religion  is  concerned,  phi- 
losophy helped  to  break  the  local  ties  of  the  Greek  gods  without 
destroying  the  gods  themselves,  and  further  it  made  men  even 
more  ready  to  identify  Greek  gods  with  gods  from  other  nations. 

Besides  the  internal  changes  in  religion  due  to  cosmopolitanism 
and  to  an  ethical  idealism,  the  introduction  of  foreign  cults  into 
Greece  itself  made  some  further  changes  Greece  had  never  been 
hospitable  to  foreign  worships,  but  it  had  always  been  susceptible, 
at  times  strangely  susceptible,  to  their  influence.  An  examination 
of  the  evidence  fails  to  show  any  marked  and  widespread  intro- 
duction of  foreign  worship  in  this  period,  except  in  the  case  of  the 
worship  of  Isis.  The  "  Mother  of  the  Gods  "  from  Asia  Minor 
had  found  worshippers  in  Greece  even  during  the  fifth  century ; 
foreign  residents  in  the  Peiraeus  continued  to  make  much  of  this 
worship;  and  in  the  Peloponnese  foreign  rites  were  frequently 


276 


GREEK   RELIGION 


introduced  into  the  local  worship  of  a  similar  goddess.     Attis, 
who  was  so  intimately  connected  with  the  Phrygian  Mother,  was 

also  worshipped  at  the  Pei- 
raeus l  and  at  Patras  ;  but  Attis 
was  never  adopted  into  Greek 
religion  as  into  religion  at 
Rome.  The  worship  of 
Adonis  was  known  at  Athens 
in  the  fifth  century  B.C.,  but 
it  made  little  progress  later.2 
It  was  not  till  about  100  A.D. 
that  the  worship  of  Mithras 
was  brought  to  Greece  as  to 
Rome.  The  worship  of  Isis, 
however,  seems  to  have  won 
considerable  influence  in 
Greece  in  the  Hellenistic 
epoch. 

The  ancient  Egyptian  Isis, 
the  rain-giving  heaven  which 
was  the  mother  of  all  things 
and  in  particular  of  the  sun, 
was  not  wholly  unknown  in 
the  Greek  islands  (e.g.,  Cyprus 
and  Rhodes)  in  early  times. 
When  Alexander  the  Great 
founded  Alexandria  in  Egypt, 
he  made  the  worship  of  Isis 
prominent  in  the  new  city; 
and  later  this  worship  was  en- 
riched by  the  rites  of  Serapis.  Foreigners  had  been  permitted  to 
establish  the  worship  of  Isis  at  the  Peiraeus  as  early  as  333  B.C.  ;3 

1  C.l.A.  II.  622;  Pausanias,  7.  20.  3,  cf.  7.  17.  9. 

2  Aristophanes,  Lys.  389;  Plutarch,  Alcibiades,  18,  p.  200. 
8  Dittenberger,  Sylloge,  551. 


FIG.  71. 


FIGURE  OF  Isis  WITH 
SISTRON 


THE   OUTCOME   OF   GREEK  RELIGION         277 

under  the  Ptolemies  Athenian  citizens  welcomed  the  new  worship 
and  there  remains  abundant  evidence  of  the  hold  it  obtained.  A 
shrine  of  Serapis  near  the  Prytaneum,  an  altar  in  the  precinct  of 
Asclepius,  a  shrine  of  Isis  on  the  south  slope  of  the  Acropolis,  votive 
offerings  to  these  gods  and  inscriptions  mentioning  their  priests, 
coins,  and  reliefs,  especially  reliefs  representing  Athenian  women 
with  the  attributes  of  Isis,  all  testify  to  the  importance  of  this  re- 
ligion from  the  third  century  on.1  In  the  Aegean  islands  the  in- 
fluence of  the  Ptolemies  and  of  the  Isis  religion  was  even  more 
marked.  At  Tithorea  there  was  an  important  centre  of  the  Isis 
mysteries  where  only  those  were  received  to  whom  the  goddess 
had  revealed  herself  in  a  dream.2  In  the  rest  of  Boeotia,  in  the 
vicinity  of  Corinth,  and  at  many  points  in  the  Peloponnese,  the 
worship  of  Isis  found  a  ready  reception  —  the  more  ready  because 
the  Greeks  recognized  in  her  a  form  of  one  of  their  own  gods. 

Occasionally  Isis  as  a  goddess  of  the  heavens  was  identified  with 
Selene  or  with  lo ;  sometimes  she  was  recognized  as  Hera,  the 
queen  of  the  gods,  or  as  Hygieia,  the  goddess  of  health;  among 
her  functions  was  the  protection  of  women  in  childbirth  and  the 
power  to  stir  the  heart  with  love,  functions  which  to  the  Greek 
meant  Aphrodite ;  but  more  commonly  she  was  a  goddess  of  the 
mysteries,  an  Egyptian  form  of  Demeter.  The  reception  of  Isis  as 
a  form  of  Demeter  was  the  more  natural  because  the  two  goddesses 
touched  at  many  points.  Isis,  like  Demeter,  had  become  a  goddess 
of  the  fertile  earth  and  of  the  grain  which  it  produced ;  Isis  and 
Serapis  were  gods  of  the  world  of  souls ;  and  the  symbols  of  De- 
meter,  cista  and  basket  and  torches  and  serpents,  early  had  found 
a  place  in  the  worship  of  Isis.  Near  Hermione,  an  old  centre  of 
Demeter  worship,  it  is  said  that  the  mysteries  of  Demeter  were 
celebrated  in  the  precinct  of  an  Isis  temple.3  Apuleius 4  describes 
as  much  as  he  deems  right  of  the  initiation  into  the  mysteries  of 

1  Milchhoefer,  Schriflquellen  zur  Topographie  von  Athen,  xxxv,  xxxix ;  Jour. 
Hell.  Stud.  (1889),  Plate  77,  EE,  9-10;  Von  Sybel,  Ath.  Mitth.  8  (1883)  26. 

2  Pausanias,  10.  32. 13.  8  Pausanias,  2.  34.  10. 
4  Metamorphoses,  u.  16  f. 


278  GREEK   RELIGION 

Isis.  The  bath  by  the  priests  with  prayers  to  the  goddess,  the  in- 
struction in  sacred  rules  of  life,  with  the  abstinence  from  meat  and 
wine  during  the  period  of  initiation,  the  investing  of  the  candidate 
with  a  mystic  robe  and  crown  of  palm  leaves,  the  vision  of  the 
image  of  Isis  which  only  the  initiated  might  see,  and  the  "birth- 
day feast"  with  which  the  ceremonies  ended  —  all  were  imposing 
rites  calculated  to  impress  an  age  which  demanded  some  new  and 
more  effective  means  of  coming  into  connection  with  the  divine. 
The  higher  mysteries  of  Isis  were  the  more  esteemed  because  they 
were  not,  like  the  Eleusinian  mysteries,  open  to  every  class  in 
society ;  they  were  designed  to  appeal  to  men  of  culture  and  edu- 
cation, and  they  were  too  expensive  for  the  lower  classes.  The 
hold  which  they  rapidly  gained  was  no  doubt  due  mainly  to  the 
nature  of  this  personal  appeal.  The  universal  character  of  the 
Isis  religion,  which  seemed  to  sum  up  in  itself  the  contents  of 
other  forms  of  worship  and  the  other  gods,  was  a  second  factor  in 
its  success.  But  perhaps  the  most  important  factor  was  the  organ- 
ized priesthood  which  carried  forward  the  new  religion.  These 
were  the  same  factors  which  had  been  present  at  the  end  of  the 
sixth  century  in  the  Orphic  movement.  But  the  Greece'  of  the 
third  and  second  centuries  B.C.  quite  lacked  the  nascent  life  of 
Greece  in  the  sixth  century  and  the  religion  of  Isis  never  attained 
either  the  direct  or  the  indirect  influence  which  must  be  assigned 
to  Orphism.1  Still  it  was  an  important  element  in  religion  through 
all  the  Greek  world  for  several  centuries ;  it  was  the  most  im- 
portant competitor  of  Christianity  in  Egypt  and  in  Rome;  and 
through  the  Gnostic  sect  it  made  its  power  felt  by  Christianity. 

The  internal  changes  in  Greek  religion  at  this  time,  as  we  have 
pointed  out,  were  (i)  the  increased  importance  assigned  to  ethical 
ideals,  until  philosophy  might  take  the  place  of  religion  for  many 
minds,  (2)  the  readiness  to  see  new  interpretations  of  the  old 
gods  or  to  identify  them  with  gods  worshipped  elsewhere,  and  (3) 

1  On  the  religion  of  Isis  see  further  the  articles  by  E.  Meyer  and  Drexler  in 
Roscher's  Lexikoti,  and  Schoemann,  Griech.  Alt.  2.  416  and  554. 


THE  OUTCOME  OF  GREEK   RELIGION         279 

the  introduction  of  at  least  one  foreign  type  of  religion  to  meet 
needs  which  traditional  rites  did  not  satisfy.  At  the  same  time 
the  old  forms  of  worship  were  scrupulously  observed  as  part  of 
that  heritage  which  Greece  learned  to  prize  the  more  as  men  saw 
how  it  was  prized  by  other  peoples.  The  spread  of  Greek  religion 
throughout  the  eastern  world  was  largely  an  outcome  of  the  same 
causes  which  produced  these  changes,  while  at  the  same  time  the 
new,  cosmopolitan  character  of  religion  was  a  condition  of  its 
extension.  To  the  character  of  Alexander,  however,  and  to  the 
avowed  policy  of  many  of  his  successors,  the  continued  importance 
of  the  old  religion  may  be  attributed. 

The  accounts  of  Alexander  represent  him  as  devoted  to  all  the 
forms  of  Greek  religion  no  less  than  Xenophon  himself.1  His 
marvellous  escapes  in  battle  he  assigned  to  special  divine  protec- 
tion (TO  0e<W) .  The  regular  sacrifices  (Kara  vo/W),  divination  before 
a  battle  and  thank-offerings  after  special  successes,  are  repeatedly 
mentioned  by  Arrian.  Alexander's  realistic  belief  in  the  world  of 
myth  is  evinced  by  his  conduct  at  Ilium  and  at  Nysa.  At  Ilium 
he  worshipped  before  the  tombs  of  Achilles  and  Protesilaus,  while 
in  the  temple  of  Athena  he  exchanged  his  armor  for  ancient 
weapons  that  had  been  consecrated  to  the  goddess  and  thereafter 
caused  these  weapons  to  be  .borne  before  him  in  battle.2  Mt. 
Meros  near  Nysa,  the  supposed  scene  of  Dionysus's  birth,  he  as- 
cended with  his  companions  to  engage  in  Bacchic  rites  on  this 
holy  soil.3  In  every  foreign  country  he  engaged  in  the  local  wor- 
ship and  caused  the  temples  to  be  preserved  or  rebuilt.  When  he 
founded  Alexandria  in  Egypt,  he  paid  special  attention  to  the  gods 
and  the  establishment  of  their  worship.  One  of  the  striking 
scenes  in  his  career  was  the  great  banquet  at  Opis,4  where  Mace- 
donians, Persians,  and  representatives  of  other  nations,  nine  thou- 
sand in  all,  joined  in  one  great  libation  under  the  guidance  of 
Greek  seers,  while  Alexander  prayed  for  every  good  and  harmony 
and  a  peaceful  rule  by  Greeks  and  Persians  together.  The  reli- 

1  Cf.  p.  269,  supra.  8  Arrian,  5. 2.  5  f. 

a  Arrian,  1.11.7!.  4  Arrian,  7.  ix.  8. 


28o  GREEK   RELIGION 

gious  nature  of  Alexander  is  seen  in  his  request  that  his  mother 
send  him  a  cook  skilled  in  sacrifices,  to  which  Olympias  responded 
as  follows  :  "  Receive  Pelignas,  the  cook,  from  your  mother ;  for 
he  understands  all  the  hereditary  sacrifices  of  our  family,  and  all 
the  orgiastic  and  Bacchic  rites  which  Olympias  is  wont  to  perform, 
these  too  he  understands."  l 

It  is  hardly  necessary  to  add  that  a  man  who  kept  with  him  in 
his  campaigns  the  manuscript  of  the  Iliad  worshipped  the  Olym- 
pian gods  and  shared  foreign  rites  only  because  he  regarded  foreign 
divinities  as  forms  of  the  Olympian  gods  (OioKpaa-io)  .2  As  Philip 
had  protected  Delphi,  and  recognized  the  place  of  the  Greek  re- 
ligion in  the  common  inheritance  of  Greece,  so  it  was  this  same 
religion  which  Alexander  carried  with  him  and  planted  wherever 
he  went. 

The  policy  of  Alexander  was  continued  by  his  successors,  though 
with  varying  interest.  The  Ptolemies  in  Egypt  kept  up  most 
friendly  relations  with  the  ancient  temples  and  their  priests,  but 
without  committing  themselves  to  any  reactionary  movement.  On 
the  other  hand,  the  international  worship  of  Adonis  at  Alexandria, 
a  worship  for  Egyptians,  Semites,  and  Greeks  alike,  was  established 
with  great  pomp.  To  this  epoch  also  belongs  the  worship  of  Ser- 
apis*  (Sarapis)3.  A  dream  of  Ptolemy  Lagi  was  interpreted  by 
Timotheus,  a  Greek  priest  from  Eleusis,  to  demand  the  introduc- 
tion of  this  cult.  The  image  of  a  god  of  the  underworld  (Pluto, 
accompanied  by  Cerberus  and  a  serpent)  was  fetched  from  Sinope 
on  the  Pontus,  only  to  be  identified  with  Serapis  (a  form  of  Osiris) 
and  worshipped  with  Isis.  The  earlier  temple  of  Isis  and  Serapis 
was  torn  down  to  make  way  for  a  splendid  Serapeum,  and  Serapis 
became  the  most  important  god  of  Alexandria. 

The  attitude  of  the  Seleucidae  toward  local  forms  of  religion 
was  less  consistent,  but  they  pursued  the  definite  policy  of  intro- 
ducing Greek  worship  as  such.  Along  with  the  Greek  drama, 

1  Athenaeus,  14.  78,  p.  659  F. 

2  Cp.  Plutarch,  De  Alexandri  fortuna,  5,  p.  328. 

8  Cp.  p.  276.     The  name  has  been  interpreted  as  Osiris-apis. 


THE   OUTCOME  OF   GREEK   RELIGION         281 

Greek  philosophy,  and  Greek  rhetoric,  an  Olympian  festival  was 
introduced  into  Antioch  l  and  the  worship  of  the  Greek  gods  was 
enforced,  e.g.  by  Antiochus  Epiphanes.  The  Greek  myth  of 
Daphne  and  Apollo  was  localized  at  Antioch  and  a  large,  well- 
watered  grove  became  the  centre  of  the  most  important  worship 
in  all  this  region.2  But  the  great  work  of  the  Seleucidae  was  to 
continue  Alexander's  policy  of  hellenizing  the  East ;  and  where- 
ever  they  carried  Greek  civilization,  they  introduced  the  Greek 
gods  or  grafted  their  worship  on  to  rites  already  existing. 

Thus  it  came  about  that  Greek  religion,  which  was  essentially 
local  by  nature,  carne  to  be  almost  a  "  world-religion."  The  uni- 
versalizing influence  of  myth  was  a  necessary  prerequisite ;  Delphi 
and  Olympia  had  helped  toward  this  end ;  the  old  local  and 
national  ties  had  been  weakened ;  and  when  a  power  that  was 
only  half  Greek  became  the  mediator  between  Hellenism  and  the 
eastern  world,  religious  forms  were  so  much  a  part  of  Greek  culture 
that  they  too  were  widely  distributed  through  that  world.  It  is 
true  that  the  worship  of  the  gods  kept  much  of  that  sectional  form 
which  had  always  been  its  characteristic.  Whenever  an  old  cult 
was  hellenized  or  a  Greek  cult  newly  established,  it  stood  inde- 
pendent of  any  outside  organization,  like  the  earlier  shrines  in 
Greece.  The  fact  remains  that  for  a  rather  brief  period  the  reli- 
gion of  the  eastern  world  was  (at  least  nominally)  Greek  religion. 

It  was  the  power  of  Rome  and  soon  the  power  of  early  Christian- 
ity which  completely  ended  the  forces  that  had  produced  this  state 
of  affairs.  Yet  no  great  factor  in  civilization,  least  of  all  the  reli- 
gious belief  and  worship  of  ancient  Greece,  has  passed  away  and 
left  no  mark  on  the  later  world.  Through  its  effect  on  the  dif- 
ferent phases  of  Hellenism,  particularly  through  its  influence  on 
Roman  religion  and  through  its  more  subtle  influence  on  Chris- 
tianity, Greek  religion  had  set  in  motion  forces  which  are  still 
operative. 

2.  The  Influence  of  Greek  Religion  on  Roman  Religion. — 
In  the  preceding  section  the  outcome  of  Greek  religion  has  been 
1  Libanius,  p.  364.  8  Strabo,  16,  p.  750. 


282  GREEK   RELIGION 

traced,  as  it  spread  with  other  phases  of  Greek  civilization  east- 
ward through  all  the  regions  that  had  been  included  in  Alexan- 
der's empire.  The  influence  of  Greek  religion  in  the  west  was 
felt  at  a  much  earlier  period,  but  it  was  not  until  the  third  century 
B.C.  that  it  began  to  dominate  religious  belief  and  practice  in 
Rome  itself.  The  religion  of  the  Roman  empire  was  quite  as 
much  Greek  as  Roman,  and  through  Rome  the  Greek  gods  be- 
came an  integral  factor  of  later  European  civilization.  Again,  the 
influence  of  Greek  religion  directly  and  indirectly  on  Christianity 
was  very  great.  Of  the  various  factors  which  determined  the 
early  development  of  Christianity  in  matters  of  ritual,  of  the- 
ology, and  of  organization,  probably  no  one  was  more  important 
than  Greek  religion,  nor  can  any  return  to  primitive  Christianity, 
so-called  pure  Christianity,  entirely  cut  out  elements  from  this 
source.  The  concluding  sections  of  this  historical  sketch  of 
Greek  religion  will  treat  these  two  streams  of  influence,  eventually 
uniting  in  one,  through  which  the  religion  of  Greece  has  continued 
to  make  its  power  felt  even  up  to  the  present  day. 

The  first  wave  of  Greek  influence  in  Rome  dates  back  to  the 
period  of  the  later  kings  and  the  earlier  years  of  the  Republic.1 
At  a  still  earlier  date  some  of  the  Greek  gods  had  come  to  be 
worshipped  by  the  Etruscans  ;  and  when  the  worship  of  Hercules 
in  Rome  by  people  from  Tibur,  or  the  worship  of  the  Dioscuri  by 
people  from  Tusculum,  won  recognition  as  part  of  the  worship  of 
the  Roman  state,  these  cults  were  not  felt  to  be  Greek,  nor  even 
foreign.  On  the  other  hand,  the  series  of  Greek  cults  introduced 
early  in  the  fifth  century  at  the  instance  of  the  Sibylline  books 
were  felt  to  be  foreign.  With  the  new  duties  assigned  to  the 
plebs  came  some  new  privileges,  and  over  against  the  old  worship 
of  the  patricians  the  state  assigned  a  place  to  forms  of  worship 
in  which  all  members  of  the  state  had  a  larger  part.  The  story 
of  the  Cumaean  Sibyl  who  offered  Tarquin  nine  books  of  oracles, 
then  six,  and  finally  sold  him  three  books  for  the  price  originally 

1  Cp.  Wissowa,  Religion  und  Kultus  der  Rdmer,  in  I.  Miiller's  Handbuch ;  and 
Aust,  Die  Religion  der  Romer,  1899. 


THE  OUTCOME  OF  GREEK   RELIGION         283 

asked  for  the  whole  collection,  is  familiar  to  all.  Apparently  the 
worship  of  Apollo  was  introduced  from  Cumae  at  the  end  of  the 
sixth  century,  though  his  first  temple  in  the  prata  Flaminia  was 
not  erected  till  433  B.C.  The  worship  of  Demeter,  Dionysus,  and 
Persephone,  under  the  Latin  names  of  Ceres,  Liber,  and  Libera, 
was  established  at  about  the  same  time ;  and  their  temple  in  the 
Campus  Martius  was  erected  in  493  B.C.  To  the  same  set  of 
influences  was  due  the  worship  of  Hermes  as  Mercury  (from 
mercari},  the  god  of  trade,  to  whom  a  temple  was  erected  in 
495  B.C.,  and  the  Greek  cults  of  Hercules  and  of  Neptune.  None 
of  these  cults  were  admitted  within  the  pomerium,  and  the  forms 
of  worship  were  felt  to  be  foreign ;  although  the  names  (except 
Apollo)  were  Latin,  the  nature  of  the  gods  was  not  Latin  but 
Greek.  In  the  case  of  Ceres,  Liber,  and  Libera,  the  connection 
with  the  plebs  is  clearly  marked,  nor  is  it  unnatural  that  outside 
influences  should  be  felt  through  other  elements  of  the  population 
than  the  old  aristocracy. 

During  the  fifth  and  fourth  centuries  B.C.  we  hear  of  no  more 
Greek  cults  established  in  Rome ;  yet  again  and  again,  in  time  of 
calamity,  the  state  had  recourse  to  the  Greek  ritual  of  the  lecti- 
sternium  under  the  direction  of  the  Sibylline  books.1  Processions 
went  about  the  city  crowned  with  the  laurel  of  Apollo,  great  sac- 
rifices were  offered,  the  temples,  ordinarily  accessible  only  to 
priests,  were  thrown  open  to  the  public,  and  a  banquet  was  spread 
to  three  pairs  of  gods  (Apollo-Latona,  Hercules- Diana,  Mercury- 
Neptune).  The  gods  themselves  were  represented  by  draped 
wooden  figures,  reclining  on  couch  and  pillow  at  the  banquet  pre- 
pared for  them.  During  this  period,  also,  many  temples  were 
erected  to  the  older  and  the  newer  gods,  while  games,  dances, 
and  even  the  drama  came  to  have  an  important  place  in  worship. 
But  while  Greek  influence,  no  doubt,  affected  the  worship  of  the 
old  Roman  gods,  a  sharp  line  was  drawn  between  the  native  gods 
and  those  introduced  from  Greek  cities ;  the  locality  of  the 
worship  was  different,  the  personnel  in  charge  of  the  worship 

1  Cp.  Diels,  Sibyllinische  Bl&tter,  1890. 


284  GREEK   RELIGION 

was  quite  distinct,  and  the  ritual  of  the  two  types  of  worship 
was  by  no  means  the  same. 

In  the  third  century  other  Greek  cults  were  introduced  into 
Rome,  the  cult  of  Aesculapius  (Asclepius)  on  the  island  in  the 
Tiber,  the  cult  of  Hades  and  Persephone,  at  the  Ara  Ditis  et 
Proserpinae  in  Tarento  (in  the  Campus  Martius),  and  still  later 
the  cult  of  Venus  Erycina  on  the  Esquiline.  These  cults,  like  the 
lectisternium,  were  introduced  to  secure  relief  in  time  of  dire 
calamity,  and  the  immediate  reason  for  recourse  to  such  means  of 
relief  was  supposedly  found  in  the  Sibylline  books. 

During  the  last  two  centuries  of  the  Republic  the  pressure  of 
Greek  influence  became  so  strong  that  in  religion,  as  in  literature, 
in  art,  and  in  philosophy,  Roman  traditions  gave  way  before  it. 
Neither  tirade  nor  the  example  of  men  like  Cato,  nor  the  use  of 
force,  as  in  banishing  philosophers,  was  sufficient  to  stem  the 
tide.  During  the  second  Punic  war,  the  direct  demand  for  divine 
help  broke  down  all  barriers ;  Greek  rites  of  propitiation  were 
performed  on  a  large  scale ;  to  the  old  Roman  gods,  as  to  gods 
more  recently  introduced,  worship  was  offered  in  the  Greek  man- 
ner, in  the  hope  that  efficient  aid  might  be  secured  from  them  in 
one  way  if  not  in  another.  Such  a  change  was  possible  only  be- 
cause the  hold  of  the  ancient  religion  was  gone ;  the-  fact  remains 
that,  to  a  considerable  degree,  Greek  forms  of  worship  had  sup- 
planted Roman  forms  of  worship  to  Roman  gods  and  in  Rome 
itself.  At  the  same  time,  the  result  of  the  change  was  in  a 
measure  nullified,  for  Roman  worship  could  not  have  been 
changed  if  religion  had  continued  to  be  a  strong  factor  in  the  life 
of  the  people. 

The  demand  of  the  times  for  more  potent  means  of  securing 
divine  aid  would  not,  in  itself,  have  caused  the  introduction  of 
Greek  ritual  rather  than  other  eastern  ritual,  however  great  the 
authority  of  the  Sibylline  books,  had  not  other  influences  been  at 
work  in  the  same  direction.  Greek  art  and  Greek  literature  had 
found  their  way  to  Rome.  "The  poets,  who  were  admired  and 
imitated,  based  their  work  on  belief  in  the  Greek  gods ;  the 


THE   OUTCOME   OF  GREEK  RELIGION         285 

works  of  art,  with  which  temples,  palaces,  and  public  places  were 
adorned,  represented  Greek  ideals,  ordinarily  ideals  of  the  Greek 
gods.  It  was  impossible  to  speak  Greek  without  exchanging 
Greek  and  Latin  names  for  the  gods,  without  confusing  old 
Roman  gods  with  the  gods  of  Homer.  Greek  poetry  could  not 
be  transplanted  to  Rome  without  bringing  in  its  train  Greek 
mythology.  It  was  impossible  to  think  of  the  gods  in  the  form 
in  which  Pheidias  and  Praxiteles  had  represented  them  for  their 
countrymen,  without  involuntarily  replacing  the  old  Roman  idea 
of  their  nature  with  the  Greek  idea." *  From  Livius  Andronicus 
on,  the  Roman  gods  were  endowed  with  Greek  myths  in  Latin 
poetry,  and  the  drama  made  these  conceptions  familiar  to  the 
people.  At  the  same  time  Roman  temples  were  furnished  with 
Greek  images  of  the  gods.  Naturally,  the  old  line  of  division 
between  Greek  ritual  and  Roman  ritual  could  no  longer  be 
kept  up. 

Consequently  when  Julius  Caesar  encouraged  the  worship  of  the 
goddess  of  the  Julian  gens,  it  was  not  the  Venus  of  Ardea,  but  a 
Greek  Venus  to  whom  he  erected  a  temple.  The  patron  of  the 
empire  of  Augustus,  the  Palatine  Apollo,  was  the  Greek  god  who 
for  nearly  five  centuries  had  been  worshipped  at  Rome  outside  the 
pomerium.  And  when  Augustus  undertook  to  revive  the  old 
Roman  religion,  its  texture  was  so  shot  through  with  Greek  threads 
that  it  was  quite  as  much  a  Greek  as  a  Roman  religion  which  he 
encouraged. 

3.  Greek  Religion  and  Christianity. — The  influence  of  Greek 
religion  on  Christianity  is  more  complex  and  many  sided  than  its 
influence  on  the  religion  of  Rome.  In  this  sketch  one  can  only 
suggest  (i)  the  persistence  of  Greek  gods  and  Greek  rites  in 
Eastern  Christianity,  (2)  the  direct  influence  of  Greek  theological 
thought  on  Christian  belief,  and  (3)  the  indirect  but  none  the  less 
permeating  influence  of  Greek  ritual  on  the  very  plastic  ritual  of 
the  early  church. 

That  in  Greece  itself  ancient  rites  should  persist  under  cover  of 

l  Zeller,  Vortr'dgc  und  Abhandlungen,  2.  105. 


286  GREEK   RELIGION 

the  new  religion,  and  that  ancient  deities  or  heroes  should  reappear 
as  Christian  saints,  is  hardly  surprising  to  one  who  considers  the 
summary  method  by  which  Christianity  became  the  established 
religion.  It  was  not  so  difficult  to  make  the  Parthenon  a  Christian 
church  when  the  virgin  goddess  of  wisdom  was  supplanted  first  by 
a  St.  Sophia  (Wisdom),  then  by  the  Virgin  Mary.  Similarly  Apollo 
was  more  than  once  supplanted  by  St.  George,  Poseidon  by  St. 
Nicholas  the  patron  of  sailors,  Asclepius  by  St.  Michael  and  St. 
Damian,  and  in  grottoes  where  nymphs  had  been  worshipped 
female  saints  received  similar  worship  from  the  same  people.1  It 
is  suggested  that  the  smaller  metropolitan  church  at  Athens,  a 
church  dedicated  to  St.  Eleutherius,  has  replaced  an  ancient  wor- 
ship of  Eileithyia ;  in  any  case  women  seek  the  aid  of  this  saint  in 
childbirth.2  Where  the  ancient  Greeks  said,  "  Zeus  rains,"  and  re- 
garded the  thunderbolt  as  the  weapon  of  Zeus,  to-day  men  say, 
"  God  rains,"  and  speak  of  the  thunderbolt  as  his  weapon.3  That 
Dionysus  should  reappear  as  St.  Dionysius,  giver  of  the  vine  to 
Naxos,  that  Paul  should  take  the  place  of  Heracles  as  the  person 
who  freed  Crete  from  noxious  beasts,  that  Cretan  legend  even  tells 
of  a  Christian  Bellerophon,  St.  Niketas,  who  rides  through  the  air 
on  a  horse  with  white  wings,  is  perhaps  more  interesting  than 
significant. 

But  to  one  who  has  been  present  when  some  old  Greek  rite  has 
been  celebrated  by  Christian  priests,  the  persistence  of  the  old 
religion  is  most  vividly  presented.  Along  with  the  bread  and  wine 
of  the  communion  service,  there  may  be  found  at  times  a  KoA.u/3a, 
a  cake  specially  prepared  from  different  kinds  of  grain,  which  is 
brought  to  the  church  and  eaten  with  greetings  from  each  man  to 
his  neighbor  after  some  crumbs  have  been  scattered  inside  the 
altar  rail.4  The  Travo-Trcpju-ta  is  made  of  different  grains  and  seeds 
and  eaten  at  the  sowing  time,  apparently  as  at  the  ancient  Athenian 

1  B.  Schmidt,  Das  Volksleben  der  Neugriechen,  46 ;  Rouse,  Greek  Votive  O/er- 
ings,  37-38. 

2  Rouse,  ibid.  237,  n.  i.  »  B.  Schmidt,  ibid.  33. 
*  B.  Schmidt,  ibid.  58. 


THE   OUTCOME   OF  GREEK  RELIGION 


287 


Proerosia.1  Votive  offerings  in  Greek  churches  to-day  bear  a  strik- 
ing resemblance  to  those 'once  offered  in  Greek  temples.2  It  is 
said  that  in  some  parts  of  the  Cyclades  a  coin  for  Charon  is  still 


FIG.  72. —  ATHENIAN  BLACK-FIGURED  VASE  PAINTING  (Loutrophoros  from 
Cape  Colias) 

The  loutrophoros  is  pictured  as  a  grave  monument  on  top  of  a  tumulus  with 
a  mourner  on  either  side. 

placed  in  the  mouth  of  the  dead,  and  that  a  century  ago  the  prac- 
tice was  widespread.     Oftentimes  an  apple  or  some  food  is  buried 

1  B.  Schmidt,  ibid.  61. 

a  B.  Schmidt,  ibid.  70;  Rouse,  Greek  Votive  Offerings,  passim. 


288  GREEK  RELIGION 

with  the  dead,  or  a  vase  is  broken  at  the  grave,  and  the  corpse 
of  an  unmarried  girl  receives  the  wedding  crown  to-day,  just  as  in 
ancient  Athens  the  marriage  to  Hades  was  symbolized  by  the 
loutrophoros  (the  vase  in  which  the  wedding  bath  was  fetched). 
How  far  the  modern  processions  and  festivals  (Travrfyvpui)  are  the 
outcome  of  Greek  festivals  it  is  not  easy  to  say,  though  when  the 
Travrjyvpi  takes  place  annually  at  some  small  chapel  in  the  country, 
there  is  occasionally  evidence  that  an  old  hero-worship  is  being 
perpetuated.  Certainly  the  Greek  Easter  festival  seems  to  pre- 
serve the  spirit  if  not  the  forms  of  the  old  Eleusinian  worship.1  In 
the  spring,  those  who  had  shared  Demeter's  grief  for  the  loss  of 
her  daughter  welcomed  the  return  of  Persephone  with  all  the  joy 
that  the  returning  life  of  vegetation  might  kindle.  And  to-day  the 
Greeks  mourn  over  the  dead  Christ,  represented  most  realistically 
by  a  wax  image  borne  through  the  streets  on  a  bier ;  then  at  mid- 
night before  Easter  Sunday  the  Metropolitan  at  Athens,  the  priest 
in  smaller  towns,  comes  out  of  the  church  announcing  that  Christ 
is  risen ;  the  light  from  his  candle  is  passed  to  the  candles  of  his 
companions  and  on  to  candles  throughout  the  crowd,  guns  and 
firecrackers  are  discharged,  and  as  they  prepare  to  break  their 
Lenten  fast  the  multitude  drop  all  restraint  in  the  expression  of 
wild  joy. 

A  far  more  important  effect  of  Greek  religion  on  Christianity, 
in  that  it  was  by  no  means  limited  to  Greece  or  to  the  Eastern 
Church,  was  due  to  the  direct  influence  of  Greek  philosophy  on 
Christian  belief.2  This  matter  deserves  to  be  considered  from 
the  standpoint  of  Greek  religion,  not  merely  from  the  standpoint 
of  Greek  philosophy,  for  the  philosophical  ideas  which  come  into 
play  were  based  on  the  practices  and  beliefs  of  Greek  religion ; 
yet  the  present  discussion  will  be  very  brief,  for  it  is  my  purpose 
to  point  out  the  fact  that  Greek  religious  ideas  bore  new  fruit  in 
Christianity  rather  than  to  follow  the  process  in  any  detail. 

1  B.  Schmidt,  ibid.  54  f. ;   Wachsmuth,  Das  alte  Griechenland  im  neuen,  26  f. 
»  Cp.  Hatch,  Hibbert  Lectures  (1888),  Lectures  I.  V,  VII  f. 


THE   OUTCOME  OF  GREEK  RELIGION         289 

It  is  perhaps  necessary  to  note  first  that  Greek  philosophy  pro- 
duced a  remarkable  and  far-reaching  change  in  the  concept  of 
what  Christianity  was.  For  Christianity  came  into  the  world  not 
as  a  new  theology,  but  as  a  new  principle  of  conduct.  The 
demand  for  "salvation,"  salvation  from  the  emptiness  of  life  as 
well  as  from  its  wickedness,  was  answered  in  Christianity  by  refer- 
ence to  a  person.  In  the  words  of  Paul  to  the  frightened  jailer  at 
Philippi,  it  said,  "  Believe  on  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and  thou  shalt 
be  saved,  and  thy  house." 1  But  as  Christianity  was  extended  into 
the  Greek  world,  it  came  into  an  environment  totally  different 
from  that  in  Palestine.  For  centuries  the  Greeks  had  been 
developing  the  habit  of  speculating,  of  making  definitions  and 
laying  down  general  principles,  of  testing  a  man's  belief  and  prac- 
tice by  the  dogma  of  the  philosophic  schools.  It  will  be  shown 
later2  that  the  doctrine  of  God  had  been  no  less  carefully  elaborated 
in  the  schools  than  the  conception  of  the  physical  world  and  of  the 
world  of  human  conduct.  Now  in  such  an  atmosphere  it  was 
inevitable,  if  Christianity  was  to  meet  the  demand  of  the  Greek 
world,  that  it  should  be  recast  in  a  new  mould.  The  first  effect 
of  Greek  philosophy  on  Christianity  was  the  rise  of  the  habit  of 
speculating  about  the  fundamentals  of  the  new  religion,  and  the 
consequent  habit  of  regarding  speculative  creeds  as  the  real  test 
to  determine  the  genuine  adherents  of  Christianity.  This  most 
momentous  change  in  all  the  history  of  Christianity  might  have 
taken  place  if  Greek  philosophy  had  never  busied  itself  at  all  with 
matters  of  religion ;  but  inasmuch  as  philosophy  had  dealt  for  so 
long  a  time  with  Greek  religion,  the  result  was  inevitable. 

There  is  no  question  that  the  manner  in  which  this  change  took 
place  was  determined  by  the  speculation  which  for  centuries  had 
been  devoted  to  the  concepts  of  Greek  religion.  In  a  word,  the 
idea  of  God  in  Christian  theology  was  developed  in  large  measure 
from  the  idea  of  God  formed  by  Greek  thought  as  to  the  Greek 
gods.  The  Greek  conception  of  the  nature  of  God  at  this  time 
laid  emphasis  on  the  unity  of  God,  his  personality,  and  his  good- 
l  Acts  16.  31.  2  Part  III,  Chap.  iii. 

GREEK    RELIGION 19 


290  GREEK   RELIGION 

ness.  The  human,  or  superhuman,  personality  of  the  gods  was 
nowhere  more  clearly  grasped  than  in  Greece,  nor  could  any 
abstract  philosophy  entirely  free  itself  from  the  prevalent  belief 
of  the  people.  But  the  unity  of  the  world  demanded  a  corre- 
sponding unity  in  God,  as  the  poets  first  saw  and  the  philosophers 
taught.  The  kindly  nature  of  Father  Zeus  appeared  clearly  in 
Homer ;  it  was  perhaps  the  logical  outcome  of  this  poetic  feeling 
to  identify  God  with  the  good  and  the  perfect,  when  philosophy 
undertook  to  unify  the  moral  ground  of  the  universe  with  the 
source  of  all  real  existence.  Such  was  the  range  of  ideas  which 
went  to  make  up  the  definition  of  God  in  Christian  theology. 

Again,  the  relation  of  God  to  the  physical  universe  and  to  mind 
had  long  occupied  Greek  thought.  Two  fundamental  facts,  fate 
or  destiny  on  the  one  hand,  the  providence  of  gods  on  the  other, 
had  always  been  recognized.  The  philosophical  conception  of 
one  God  raised  questions  as  to  the  nature  of  matter  and  of  evil, 
as  to  the  immanence  and  transcendence  of  God,  as  to  the  relation 
of  God  to  that  process  by  which  the  world  had  come  to  be  what 
it  is.  In  order  to  bridge  the  connection  between  the  supreme 
being  and  the  world  of  sense,  lesser  spiritual  beings,  active  divine 
ideas  or  a  mediating  Logos,  were  introduced  between  the  two 
extremes.  To  explain  the  presence  of  evil  under  the  government 
of  a  good  God,  it  was  assumed  now  that  the  good  power  was  not 
all-controlling,  now  that  evil  was  only  a  disguised  form  of  good,  or, 
again,  it  was  accredited  to  human  freedom.  Thus  a  whole  series 
of  definitions  and  theories,  developed  out  of  Greek  religion,  were 
at  hand  ready  to  be  applied  to  the  Christian  conception  of  God 
in  his  relation  to  the  whole.  The  inner  history  of  Christianity 
from  the  second  to  the  fourth  centuries  was  in  the  main  a  devel- 
opment of  theology,  in  which  the  Greek  idea  of  God  that  had 
been  worked  out  by  philosophy  became  fruitful  for  actual  religion. 

Thirdly,  an  elaborate  ritual  was  at  the  same  time  being  developed 
in  the  new  religion.  And  here  again  the  forces  at  work  were 
mainly  Greek ;  only  that  here  there  was  no  such  intermediary  as 


THE   OUTCOME   OF  GREEK   RELIGION         291 

philosophy,  and  the  practices  of  religion  could  but  gradually  make 
their  way  across  a  barrier  of  intense  hostility.1  At  the  end  of  the 
first  century  the  only  ritual  of  Christianity  was  to  be  found  in  an 
extremely  simple  observance  of  the  sacraments :  the  baptismal 
bath  as  the  seal  of  entrance  into  the  new  kingdom,  following  a 
brief  instruction  as  to  the  meaning  of  the  new  religion,  and  that 
common  meal  with  special  prayers  foi  blessing  on  the  wine  and 
the  bread  by  which  men  commemorated  the  last  meal  of  Jesus 
with  his  disciples.  By  the  fifth  century  all  this  simplicity  had 
given  way  to  a  long  and  richly  developed  ritual.  Baptism  took 
place  once  a  year,  just  before  Easter,  on  "  that  mystic  night," 
apart  from  any  profane  eye.  The  candidates  had  undergone  a 
long  novitiate  of  fasting,  during  which  evil  had  been  exorcised  by 
half-magical  means,  and  preparation  had  been  made  for  the  gift 
of  new  life.  They  came  to  the  baptistry  ungirded,  without  adorn- 
ment, with  bare  feet,  the  women  with  their  hair  loosed  —  in  Jerusa- 
lem, if  not  elsewhere,  with  veiled  countenance  and  covered  eyes. 
The  water  baptism,  which  symbolized  purification  from  evil,  was 
followed  by  an  anointing  with  oil  to  symbolize  the  gift  of  the 
Holy  Spirit.  Then  they  came  to  the  church  which  was  ablaze 
with  light,  wearing  garments  of  pure  white  linen,  crowns  on  their 
heads,  and  candles  or  torches  in  their  hands,  and  here  at  their  first 
mass  they  received  a  mixture  of  honey  and  milk  to  drink  instead 
of  wine.  Baptism  was  called  the  "  dress  of  immortality,"  2  in  that 
it  was  supposed  to  confer  on  men  the  eternal  life  ;  consequently  it 
was  often  postponed  until  late  in  life  when  death  and  the  next 
world  seemed  near  at  hand.  Naturally  these  rites  were  more 
developed  in  some  places  than  in  others,  but  the  general  practice 
is  covered  by  this  statement. 

Thus  it  appears  the  purpose  of  baptism,  as  of  the  Greek  mys- 
teries, was  to  assure  blessedness  in  another  world.  Its  direct 
result  was  not  the  forgiveness  of  sins,  but  rather  the  removal  of 

1  Cp.   Hatch,  Hibbert  Lectures  (1888),  Lecture  X;    and   particularly  Anrichs, 
Das  antike  Mysterienwesen  in  seinem  Einftuss  auf  das  Christentum,  1894. 
3  Basil,  Ep.  292,  ad  Pallad.  (32,  1033),  quoted  by  Anrichs,  181. 


292  GREEK   RELIGION 

evil  and  the  introduction  of  a  better  nature.  The  preparation  for 
baptism  had  been  made  like  the  preparation  for  the  mysteries,  in 
that  a  considerable  period  was  set  aside  as  a  novitiate  in  which 
purification,  in  particular  purification  from  evil  spirits,  played  an 
important  part.  And  the  rite  itself  had  much  in  common  with 
the  initiation  into  the  mysteries  —  its  secrecy,  the  absence  of  any- 
thing like  ornament,  the  veiled  face,  then  the  white  linen  garments 
and  crowns  and  torches  with  the  drink  of  honey  and  milk  —  the 
rite  had  become  for  the  Greek  an  initiation,  and  it  was  frequently 
referred  to  by  this  name.1 

The  Lord's  Supper  also  came  to  be  called  a  mystery  (fofiepov 
/xvoTTTjpiov)  as  the  result  of  the  same  set  of  influences.  At  a  rela- 
tively early  date  a  sharp  line  was  drawn  between  the  baptized  and 
the  unbaptized  catechumens,  for  "  eternal  guilt "  attached  to  those 
who  partook  of  the  Lord's  Supper  without  due  initiation ;  later 
there  came  to  be  degrees  among  the  initiated  themselves,  as  in 
the  Greek  mysteries.  Next,  the  table  on  which  the  elements 
were  placed  was  called  an  altar  (Ovo-iavTrjpiov)  and  the  elements 
themselves  were  called  /Auor^pux.  Finally  such  words  as  "  hierarch  " 
(tepapx'7?)  f°r  tne  Christian  priests,  and  "  enlightened  vision " 
(l-n-o(f/ui)  of  sacred  things,  are  taken  over  from  the  mysteries,  and 
the  transformation  of  the  sacrament  into  a  Greek  mystery  is  all  but 
complete.2 

Thus  the  Lord's  Supper,  like  baptism,  assured  one  of  blessed- 
ness in  a  future  life  ;  indeed,  it  came  to  be  called  an  "  antidote  for 
death,"3  a  "viaticum  mortis."  Its  magical  power  to  impart  the 
resurrection  life  was  explained  by  the  real  presence  of  the  Lord  in 
the  wine  and  in  the  bread ;  just  as  the  divine  life  was  shared  by 
those  who  took  part  in  such  mysteries  as  those  at  Eleusis.  Both 
the  purpose  of  the  rite  and  the  means  for  securing  this  purpose 
had  come  to  be  very  much  the  same  as  in  the  mysteries  of  Greek 
religion. 

l  Cp.  Hatch,  Hibbert  Lectures  (1888),  296. 

2Cp.  Dionysius  Areop.  Eccles,  Hitr.  3.  i,  j,  p.  1875.,  quoted  by  Hatch,  Hibbert 
Lectures  (1888),  p.  304.  *  Ignatius,  Ad  Ephes,  so.  2. 


THE   OUTCOME   OF   GREEK  RELIGION         293 

How  such  a  change  could  take  place  when  all  the  time  a  life- 
and-death  struggle  was  going  on  between  the  old  and  the  new 
religion  is  a  question  that  does  not  concern  us  here.  It  is  suffi- 
cient to  point  out  that  the  change  was  very  gradual,  and  that  it 
could  only  have  taken  place  on  the  unconscious  assumption  that 
"  religion "  meant  the  rites  and  conceptions  which  had  been 
familiar  to  the  Greek  mind  for  centuries,  while  "  Christian 
religion "  meant  a  new  content  in  the  old  form.  The  important 
fact  for  the  student  of  Greek  religion  is  that  this  religion  was  not 
blotted  out  by  Christianity.  On  the  contrary,  whatever  real  life  it 
had  was  perpetuated  in  Christianity,  since  the  conquering  religion 
had  adopted  many  of  its  forms  and  some  of  the  old  content  in  these 
forms.  In  the  centuries  which  followed  much  of  this  Greek  ele- 
ment in  Christianity  was  forgotten  or  forcibly  removed ;  yet  much 
still  remains,  a  permanent  contribution  to  what  claimed  to  be  a 
world  religion,  "  where  there  is  neither  Jew  nor  Greek.  .  .  -1 " 

l  Ep.  Colossians  3.  u. 


PART   III 

RELIGION   AND   OTHER   PHASES   OF   LIFE 
IN   GREECE 

CHAPTER  I 
RELIGION  IN   RELATION  TO  ART  AND  LITERATURE 

1.  The  General  Connection  of  Art  and  Religion.  —  In  the  earlier 
parts  of  this  work  the  forms  of  Greek  worship  and  belief  have 
been  studied,  and  the  attempt  has  been  made  to  sketch  the  lines 
of  development  for  Greek  religion.  It  still  remains  to  consider 
its  relation  to  other  social  forces ;  one  must  know  its  relation 
to  art  and  literature  in  Greece,  to  morals  and  government,  to  phi- 
losophy ;  and  in  conclusion  one  may  ask  again  how  far  Greek 
religion  deserves  really  to  be  regarded  as  a  form  of  religion.  From 
this  point  of  view  the  facts  already  presented  require  some  further 
discussion  even  at  the  risk  of  occasional  repetition. 

Neither  in  the  early  days  of  Puritan  New  England  at  the  one 
extreme,  nor  in  ancient  Greece  at  the  other,  can  religion  and  art 
be  regarded  as  wholly  independent  of  each  other.  They  are  in 
truth  two  of  the  ways  by  which  man  seeks  to  adjust  himself  to  the 
world  in  which  he  lives.  As  by  science  he  interprets  it  in  terms 
of  physical  law,  so  in  art  he  is  interpreting  it  in  terms  of  his  sense 
for  beauty ;  and  it  is  this  same  world  which  becomes  intelligible, 
sympathetic,  practicable,  through  his  relation  to  the  gods  and 
through  their  worship.  Among  other  peoples  religious  develop- 
ment has  been  largely  determined,  now  by  ethical  demands,  now 
by  its  relation  to  science  and  philosophy,  rather  than  by  the  sense 
for  beauty.  In  Greece  art  and  literature  were  the  means  by  which 

294 


RELATION   TO   ART  AND    LITERATURE         295 

men  best  laid  hold  of  universal  principles  of  truth  and  stated  them 
for  the  eye  to  see  or  for  the  ear  to  hear.  In  music  and  poetry,  in 
the  dance,  in  the  drama,  as  in  sculpture  and  painting,  it  was  some 
great  fact  of  human  life,  often  a  fact  understood  to  be  religious, 
which  gave  to  art  its  meaning.  The  effort  of  the  artist  for  creative 
expression  in  form  to  be  grasped  by  the  senses  is  in  contrast  with 
the  attempt  of  religion  to  deal  directly  with  the  spiritual  and  the 
ideal.  But  where,  as  in  Greece,  art  was  the  one  fullest  expression 
for  man's  sense  of  the  ideal,  it  necessarily  was  potent  to  shape 
religious  thought  and  practice. 

In  a  Christian  service,  held  in  some  cathedral  which  centuries 
of  art  have  labored  to  make  beautiful,  carried  on  with  all  the 
splendor  of  color  and  form,  of  tone  and  harmony,  which  Christian 
tradition  has  received  at  the  hands  of  art,  it  is  not  easy  to  distin- 
guish between  the  appreciation  of  beauty  and  the  feeling  of  reli- 
gious devotion.  It  was  not  at  all  easier  to  distinguish  between  the 
two  emotions  at  a  religious  festival  in  the  time  of  Pericles.  The 
festival  held  the  people  because  its  forms  and  associations  were 
supremely  beautiful.  Religious  lyric  and  the  drama,  like  music 
and  the  dance,  were  an  actual  part  of  worship.  The  house  in 
which  the  spirit  of  the  god  found  a  home,  its  painted  and  sculp- 
tured ornaments,  the  votive  offerings,  the  image  of  the  god, 
formed  the  contribution  of  plastic  art  to  religious  worship.  At 
every  point  sensitiveness  to  beauty  of  line  and  form  and  move- 
ment made  its  imperative  demand  on  the  worshipper.  Little  won- 
der, then,  that  enjoyment  of  the  beautiful  was  so  blended  with 
pious  devotion  that  no  line  can  be  drawn  to  separate  them.  If 
this  is  what  is  meant  by  a  "  worship  of  beauty,"  that  somewhat 
ambiguous  phrase  might  be  applied  to  Greek  religion.1 

The  fact  remains  that  the  Greeks  did  not  directly  worship  any 
abstract  conception  of  beauty,  although  their  religion  in  the  whole 
history  of  its  development  was  determined  by  aesthetic  influences. 
It  was  inevitable  that  the  forms  of  worship  should  be  modified  in 
accordance  with  the  nature  of  the  worshippers  to  satisfy  the  spirit- 
1  In  the  same  sense  Hebrew  religion  might  be  termed  a  "  worship  of  holiness." 


296  GREEK   RELIGION 

ual  need  which  they  felt.  Objects  of  worship,  also,  were  brought 
within  the  sphere  of  art ;  images  of  the  gods  became  the  highest 
expression  of  the  sculptor's  power,  and  in  time  their  divine  beauty 
filled  religion  with  a  deeper  meaning  for  the  worshipper.  Because 
the  Athenian  of  the  fifth  century  B.C.  felt  the  power  of  invisible 
forces  mainly  through  art,  the  gods  assumed  visible  forms,  gracious 
wisdom  was  seen  in  an  Athena  of  Pheidias,  and  the  modest  charm 
of  love  in  an  Aphrodite  by  Alcamenes.  The  fifth  century  in 
Athens  was  a  unique  point  in  the  history  of  religion,  in  that  truly 
spiritual  ideals,  which  were  active  in  worship  and  belief,  had  not 
passed  beyond  the  stage  when  they  could  be  adequately  expressed 
in  concrete  artistic  form.  Up  to  this  time  the  gods  had  been  too 
vague  and  indefinite,  later  the  highest  thought  of  the  gods  became 
too  spiritual  for  such  expressions ;  for  a  brief  period  high  spirit- 
ual forces  were  conceived  as  gods  who  could  be  represented  for 
human  vision  and  with  whom  men  could  hold  social  converse.  It 
was  a  passing  moment,  for  such  gods  must  yield  to  the  analyzing 
touch  of  reason. 

2.  The  Influence  of  Religion  on  Art  and  Literature.  —  In  the 
preceding  section  on  the  history  of  religion  in  Greece  the  evi- 
dence of  contemporary  literature  was  considered  at  each  step,  on 
the  ground  that  the  reflection  of  religious  ideals  in  literature  was 
the  most  important  record  of  that  history.  The  testimony  of 
painting  and  the  plastic  arts  is  hardly  less  important,  though  it 
bears  rather  on  the  nature  of  the  religion  than  on  the  question  of 
its  historical  development.  The  influence  of  religion  on  literature 
and  on  art  may  be  considered  from  three  points  of  view. 

i.  In  the  first  place  religion  furnished  the  theme,  not  to  say 
the  content,  for  art  and  for  literature.  The  conception  of  the 
particular  god,  already  outlined  in  worship  and  in  story,  was  the 
greatest  conceivable  theme  for  the  sculptor ;  he  could  modify 
details,  he  could  put  more  meaning  into  the  conception  as  it 
reached  him,  but  it  was  his  task  to  represent  for  the  worshippers  a 
Zeus  or,  it  might  be,  an  Apollo.  For  temple  decoration  the  stories 
of  gods  and  giants,  Lapiths  and  centaurs,  Greeks  and  Amazons, 


RELATION   TO   ART   AND    LITERATURE         297 

or  some  such  local  myth  as  that  of  the  contest  of  Athena,  invaria- 
bly furnished  the  artist's  theme.  For  literature  from  Homer  on, 
this  principle  is  true  in  only  less  degree.  The  divine  world  is  as 
real  for  the  epic  as  is  the  battlefield  before  Troy  or  the  court 
of  Odysseus  at  Ithaca.  In  the  Theogony  of  Hesiod,  in  the  reli- 
gious lyric  or  the  epinician  ode,  more  than  all  in  the  drama,  the 
real  theme  is  religious  and  the  content  is  in  large  measure  derived 
from  the  stories  which  had  grown  up  around  gods  and  heroes. 

2.  Again,  religious  worship  furnished  the  occasion  which  de- 
manded the  aid  of  art  and  literature.  It  was  the  religious  festival 
which  called  for  dance  and  music  and  lyric  poetry  to  make  its 
appeal  truly  effective  for  a  people  like  the  Greeks.  Though  not 
very  much  is  known  of  the  religious  lyric  proper,  the  choral  odes 
still  extant  bear  clear  evidence  of  the  religious  gatherings  for  which 
they  were  written.  In  the  case  of  the  drama  the  religious  origin 
and  the  persisting  religious  meaning  are  self-evident.  Performed 
at  a  festival  of  Dionysus,  beside  his  temple,  in  the  presence  of  his 
altar  and  his  priest,  tragedy  and  comedy  are  the  natural  response 
to  that  Greek  demand  for  the  enrichment  of  worship  by  art.  Nor 
should  it  be  forgotten  that  the  Athenians  pressed  the  epic  into 
this  same  service,  making  it  enrich  the  festivals  of  Athena,  as  con- 
tests of  lyric  poetry  enriched  the  festivals  of  Apollo,  and  the  drama 
those  of  Dionysus.  This  demand  on  the  part  of  religion  was  even 
more  a  directing  force  for  the  visual  arts.  Architecture  was  essen- 
tially the  art  of  building  temples,  for  here  first  was  felt  the  need 
of  noble  buildings.  Earlier  Greek  sculpture  in  the  round  was 
concerned  for  the  most  part  with  athletic  types  and  other  statues 
of  human  beings,  made,  to  be  sure,  for  dedication  to  the  gods. 
But  when,  after  some  mastery  of  material  had  been  gained,  social 
and  political  changes  created  the  demand  for  temple  statues  that 
should  express  with  untrammelled  freedom  the  highest  conception 
of  the  gods,  sculpture  speedily  attained  its  highest  point  of  excel- 
lence. The  demand  ceased  at  length,  statues  of  the  gods  were 
made  primarily  for  decorative  purposes,  and  art  lagged  without  the 
religious  impulse. 


298  GREEK   RELIGION 

3.  Thirdly,  the  influence  of  religion  on  art  and  literature  was 
important  in  that  it  furnished  a  different  point  of  view  for  the 
treatment  of  any  theme  which  might  be  undertaken.  It  was  char- 
acteristic of  the  Greek  artist  that  he  sought  to  express  the  great 
truths  of  human  life  in  his  achievements.  This  ageless,  timeless 
quality  in  painting  or  sculpture  or  poetry  finds  a  double  method 
of  expression,  directly  in  its  treatment  of  men,  their  experiences 
and  relations,  indirectly  in  its  treatment  of  the  gods.  Sometimes  it 
appears  almost  that  the  gods  are  the  abstract  ideals  themselves, 
that  Zeus  is  justice,  Athena  wisdom,  and  Aphrodite  love.  In 
decorative  sculpture  on  temples  and  public  buildings,  in  the  great 
paintings  which  include  the  gods,  on  gems  and  painted  vases  with 
religious  scenes,  the  subject  is  rightly  termed  "  religious  ;  "  yet  the 
underlying  meaning  of  the  artist's  work  is  some  principle  of  human 
life  which  in  these  instances  he  has  expressed  through  the  person 
of  the  gods.  Similarly  Greek  myths,  especially  when  they  were 
taken  up  into  poetry,  became  a  vehicle  for  the  expression  of  human 
truth  in  a  divine  world.  The  personal  character  of  the  gods,  their 
relations  to  each  other  and  to  men  constitute  this  divine  world. 
In  such  a  world  or  society  on  a  higher  than  human  plane  the 
problems  of  human  life  are  presented  in  another  light ;  the  aims, 
the  struggles,  and  the  laws  of  human  existence  are  treated  from 
a  different  standpoint.  Oftentimes  the  divine  world  serves  as  a 
sort  of  background  which  gives  man's  daily  life  its  proper  setting, 
a  background  which  throws  out  in  higher  relief  both  its  evanes- 
cence and  its  real  greatness.  Elsewhere  than  in  Greece  the 
supreme  reality  of  religion  has  often  been  emphasized  at  the  cost 
of  reality  in  man's  daily  life,  or  again  the  life  of  to-day  has  over- 
shadowed the  divine  world ;  in  Greece  gods  and  men  were  won- 
derfully blended  in  one  social  universe.  It  is  natural  then  that  in 
Greece  the  same  fundamental  truths  of  life  should  be  presented  by 
the  artist  now  from  the  standpoint  of  men,  now  from  the  stand- 
point of  the  gods.  It  is  natural  that  here  religion  should  furnish 
not  only  the  theme  and  the  occasion  for  the  artist,  but  also  a  world 
in  which  human  truth  should  find  new  and  effective  expression. 


RELATION   TO  ART  AND    LITERATURE         299 

3.  The  Influence  of  Art  and  Literature  on  Religion.  —  If  now  we 
turn  to  the  other  side  of  the  question  and  consider  the  influence 
of  art  and  literature  on  religion,  the  connection  is  no  less  apparent.1 
In  the  outline  of  the  history  of  religion  in  Greece  the  universalizing 
influences  of  poetry  and  in  particular  of  the  epic  have  been  consid- 
ered. Because  the  epic  bard  selected  for  his  song  those  ideas 
and  practices  which  had  universal  meaning,  whatever  influence  he 
had  was  exerted  to  mould  singular  or  local  types  of  religion  in  the 
direction  of  one  general  type.  In  less  degree  lyric  poetry  and  the 
drama  and  prose  literature  neglected  the  particular  for  the  general 
in  their  treatment  of  religious  themes.  Even  what  was  written  for 
one  city  like  Athens,  or  for  one  shrine  like  Delphi,  because  it 
adopted  in  a  measure  this  general  standpoint,  helped  to  spread  the 
conceptions  of  religion  in  a  form  that  was  universally  understood. 
The  effect  of  art  in  this  direction  was  more  limited.  Yet  since 
it  was  the  mission  of  Greek  art  to  grasp  what  was  universal  in  its 
theme,  even  in  a  statue  or  a  painting  made  for  the  shrine  of  local 
worship,  the  particular  local  features  of  the  subject  were  forced 
into  the  background.  Products  of  the  lesser  arts,  like  gems,  seal- 
rings,  coins,  metal  utensils,  embossed  metal  decoration,  or  painted 
pottery,  were  not  made  for  any  one  locality ;  inevitably  religious 
subjects  were  given  a  general  treatment,  in  which  form  they  were 
circulated.  The  Athena  head  on  coins  of  Corinth  or  of  Athens, 
the  head  of  Hera  on  coins  of  Argos,  the  temple  of  Apollo  or  the 
figure  of  Apollo  on  coins  of  Delphi,  carried  with  them  all  over  Greece 
these  types  of  the  gods  until  they  became  a  national  possession. 

In  connection  with  this  universalizing  influence  of  art  and 
literature  the  tendency  to  omit  or  modify  what  is  unpleasing 
in  religion  goes  with  the  tendency  to  set  aside  what  is  purely 
local  in  its  meaning.  As  for  myth,  it  is  not  difficult  to  trace 
the  process  by  which  the  ugly  and  the  revolting  yield  to  the 
demands  of  the  aesthetic  sense.  Conservative  as  is  religious 
practice,  yet  the  demand  that  beauty  and  propriety  be  present 

1  Cp.  "  Literary  Influence  in  the  Development  of  Greek  Religion,"  Biblical 
World  (1898),  294  f. 


3oo  GREEK   RELIGION 

exerts  a  constant  pressure  on  the  traditional  forms  of  worship. 
The  development  of  the  drama  is  the  one  most  striking  example 
of  the  requirement  that  religious  practice  conform  to  an  aesthetic 
ideal.  In  all  forms  of  worship,  however,  what  offends  a  trained 
taste  gradually  disappears  before  the  orderly,  dignified,  more 
beautiful  practices  of  a  cultivated  people.  And  in  the  concep- 
tions which  go  with  worship  the  negative  effect  of  the  aesthetic 
sense,  throwing  into  the  background  or  cutting  out  elements  of 
barbarism,  ever  pursues  the  natural  conservatism  of  religious 
thought.  The  result  is  that  old,  unbeautiful  forms  of  religion 
remain  in  a  city  like  Athens  only  when  some  peculiar  potency 
is  attached  to  them. 

Apart  from  the  somewhat  general  points  thus  far  considered, 
the  effect  of  art  and  literature  on  religion  in  the  case  of  a 
people  sensitive  to  their  influence  was  inevitably  so  to  modify 
religion  that  it  should  make  a  strong  aesthetic  appeal.  This 
tendency  may  be  traced  along  several  different  lines.  In  the 
first  place  the  one  most  striking  characteristic  of  Greek  religion, 
its  human  gods  and  humanized  worship,  is  both  the  result  of 
aesthetic  influences  and  a  means  through  which  religion  appealed 
to  the  sense  of  the  beautiful.  The  transformation  of  the  vague 
powers  once  worshipped  into  actual  gods,  followed  different  lines 
among  different  nations.  In  Greece  art  and  literature  combined 
to  define  the  gods  as  human  in  their  nature ;  their  greatness 
was  limited  to  what  the  poetic  imagination  could  grasp,  their 
vagueness  yielded  to  the  demand  for  concrete  form,  and  the 
form  was  inevitably  human.  The  humanizing  of  the  gods  repre- 
sents that  same  victory  of  human  intelligence  over  natural  forces 
which  was  so  emphasized  in  myth.  The  poet  and  the  artist 
saw  in  man  something  of  the  universal,  the  spiritual,  the  divine ; 
in  striving  to  express  this  side  of  humanity  they  found  no  other 
medium  than  the  gods.  When  the  highest  aim  of  the  sculptor 
was  to  make  some  image  of  a  god,  every  success  he  achieved 
must  have  served  to  make  the  human  nature  of  the  gods  more 
real.  At  times  in  the  history  of  humanity  religious  thought 


RELATION   TO  ART  AND   LITERATURE        301 

has  denied  the  existence  of  physical  nature  or  regarded  it  as 
unworthy  of  attention  ;  under  the  influence  of  art  the  forces  in  the 
world  became  for  the  Greek  gods  of  human  type,  and  the  aesthetic 
appeal  of  nature  was  utilized  for  religion  in  the  person  of  the  gods.1 
And  because  the  relation  of  god  and  man  was  so  human,  the  forms 
of  worship  also  were  moulded  by  man's  sense  of  the  beautiful. 

Working  along  these  lines  over  against  religious  conservatism,  it 
was  the  province  of  art,  in  the  second  place,  to  define  and  visualize 
religious    conceptions.2      However    sharply   myth   be   separated 
from  religion,  the  nature  of  the  gods  as  defined  in  myth  and 
in   poetry  could   never   be   without  effect  on   the   worshipper's 
thought   of  his   gods.     This  definition  of  religious   conceptions 
by  an  influence  primarily  aesthetic  rather  than  ethical,  was  fully 
recognized  by   Plato  when   he   proposed  to  exclude   the   poets 
from   his   ideal   state.      Much    as   it   might   be    deprecated   by 
philosophy,  the  fact  re- 
mained as  a  most  strik- 
ing    characteristic      of 
Greek     religion.       Nor 
were  painters  and  sculp- 
tors  behind   the    poets 
in  this  work.     Painting 
brought    before    men's       FlG  7~Com  OF  NAXOS  (abouT  46o  B.C.) 
eyes  the  story  and  the        Head  of  the  bearded  Dionysus;  Satyr  with 
actors,  myth  and  the  gods  Wine  cup. 

connected    with    myth. 

True  as  it  is  that  gods  of  myth  rather  than  of  worship  were 
thus  represented,  the  worshipper  could  not  but  feel  the  influence  of 
these  pictures.  That  Dionysus  in  the  sixth  century  was  pictured 
as  a  bearded  man,  in  the  fourth  century  as  an  almost  effeminate 
youth ;  that  Athena  was  rarely  represented  without  some  piece 
of  armor ;  that  the  artist  emphasized  the  mother  in  Demeter, 

1 "  In  Greece,  we  may  truly  say,  man  pressed  on  through  the  dawn-gate  of 
Beauty  into  the  Land  of  Knowledge."    Gruppe,  Griechische  Mythologie,  972. 
2  Welcker,  Gotterlehre,  2.  in  and  120. 


302 


GREEK  RELIGION 


the  wife  in  his  treatment  of  Hera, 
must  mean  that  the  pictorial  imagi- 
nation of  the  worshipper  followed 
along  the  same  lines.  When  sculp- 
ture made  the  gods  visible  to 
worshippers  in  their  temples,  the  in- 
fluence of  art  on  religion  was  at  its 
height.  That  the  Athenian  habit- 
ually thought  of  his  goddess  in  the 
form  of  the  gold  and  ivory  image 
which  stood  in  the  Parthenon  is 
clearly  proved  by  the  minor  prod- 
ucts of  art.  So  closely  was  the 
god  identified  with  the  image  that 
the  image  of  the  god  was  bathed, 
anointed,  clothed,  crowned  with  gar- 
lands, etc.,  as  part  of  the  worship 
of  the  god.  In  Pharae  the  question 
of  those  who  consulted  Hermes  was 
whispered  in  the  ear  of  the  image;1 
the  Athenians  were  told  at  Delphi 
that  the  gods  in  their  threatened 
temples  were  sweating  in  fear  of 
the  Persians ; 2  the  image  of  Athena 
in  Siris3  is  said  to  have  closed  its 
eyes  when  suppliants  were  taken 
from  her  shrine  by  the  victorious  enemy.  How  far  the  god  and 
the  image  were  actually  identified  by  the  worshipper  it  is  diffi- 
cult to  say ;  there  can  be  no  question,  however,  that  the  sculptor 
furnished  the  visual  form  in  which  alone  men  could  picture  their 
gods  as  they  worshipped  them.4 

1  Pausanias,  7.  22.  2-3.  2  Herodotus,  7.  140.  '  Strabo,  6,  p.  264. 

4  The  representations  of  Athena  on  Athenian  reliefs  furnish  an  excellent  example 
of  the  manner  in  which  a  temple  statue  (the  Athena  Parthenos  of  Pheidias)  deter- 
mined the  visible  form  of  a  goddess  for  her  worshippers. 


FIG.  74.  —  MARKLK  STATUE  OF 
DIONYSUS  FROM  TIVOLI 
(Terme  Museum,  Rome) 


RELATION   TO  ART  AND   LITERATURE        303 

From  the  facts  thus  far  considered,  the  fact  that  art  and  litera- 
ture were  the  strongest  forces  to  give  the  gods  a  divinely  human 
personality,  and  the  fact  that  they  defined  and  visualized  religious 
conceptions,  we  are  in  a  position  to  understand  something  of  the 
power  which  aesthetic  ideals  exerted  to  enforce  and  uplift  reli- 
gion. On  the  one  hand  a  people  sensitive  to  beauty  were  mould- 
ing religion  and  organizing  its  conceptions  from  the  standpoint 
of  the  beautiful,  on  the  other  hand  the  religion  thus  moulded  and 
organized  gained  in  power  because  it  satisfied  the  sense  for  beauty. 
All  the  power  that  epic  poetry  had  to  move  its  hearers  was  exerted 
to  enforce  its  picture  of  the  Olympian  world ;  all  the  power  of 
tragedy  over  an  Athenian  audience  was  bringing  home  to  the 
people  the  religious  conceptions  of  an  Aeschylus  or  a  Sophocles ; 
whatever  emotions  were  stirred  by  the  choral  hymn  and  rhythmic 
dance  were  utilized  by  religion  to  secure  a  hold  on  the  worshipper. 
The  splendid  homes  built  for  the  gods  in  the  sixth  century  and 
the  fifth  century,  the  tribute  of  architecture  to  religion,  made  the 
rule  of  the  gods  more  real  by  preparing  the  mind  of  the  visitor  for 
worship.  Because  rhythmic  harmony  of  line  and  a  sense  of  restful 
unity  were  so  satisfying  to  his  eye,  his  mind  was  the  more  ready 
to  accept  whatever  truth  religion  had  to  teach.  His  mind  thus 
open  to  religious  influence,  the  visitor  might  stand  in  the  door- 
way of  the  later  temple  of  Dionysus  at  Athens,  and  see  before  him 
the  gold  and  ivory  statue  of  the  god  by  Alcamenes.  Inevitably 
the  ability  of  the  artist  to  express  the  god's  nature  produced  an 
impression  quite  as  important  for  religion  as  it  was  for  art  itself. 
The  temple  and  the  statue  at  Athens  were  but  part  of  a  larger 
movement  which  aimed  directly  to  utilize  art  in  making  religion 
more  splendid.  The  aim  of  Peisistratus,  or  later  of  Pericles,  was 
not  primarily  religious.  The  worship  of  Athena  and  of  Dionysus 
was  enriched  by  all  the  powers  at  the  command  of  the  statesman 
in  order  to  satisfy  the  people  by  splendid  pageant,  to  create  a 
sense  of  civic  unity,  to  break  the  power  of  political  discontent  by 
appealing  to  the  aesthetic  sense.  The  outcome  of  this  movement, 
however,  could  but  be  the  binding  of  art  and  religion  in  a  closer 


304  GREEK  RELIGION 

union.  The  content  of  religion  was  given  a  beautiful  form  which 
men  could  see  and  feel ;  the  result  was  that  the  gods  were  inter- 
preted to  their  worshippers,  the  practices  of  worship  were  made 
the  vehicle  of  the  artist's  power,  the  ideals  of  religion  were  ree'n- 
forced  by  every  device  at  the  command  of  the  artist. 

It  is  not  quite  enough  to  say  that  art,  which  had  re-created  the 
gods  and  moulded  the  forms  of  worship  to  express  its  ideals,  was 
the  strongest  prop  of  religion  in  the  great  days  of  Athens.  The 
artist,  just  because  he  was  an  artist,  became  for  a  people  like 
the  Greeks  a  prophet  of  religious  progress.  The  Iliad  and  the 
Odyssey  exhibit  a  strange  power  on  the  part  of  the  poet  to  idealize 
the  common  life  of  man.  This  idealizing  touch  of  Greek  poetry, 
from  Homer  on,  was  a  continuous  influence  on  religion  to  give  it 
a  deeper  meaning  as  well  as  a  stronger  hold  on  men.  The  painter 
brought  to  his  pictures  of  religious  themes  his  advancing  ideals  of 
beauty  in  line  and  composition  and  color.  The  sculptor  learned 
the  divineness  of  beautiful  form  in  his  efforts  to  portray  the  gods, 
and  what  he  learned  he  taught  to  the  public.  Just  because  the 
artist  in  each  different  line  was  true  to  the  principles  of  art,  he  was 
interpreting  life  in  terms  of  the  beautiful.  The  larger  facts  and 
ideals  of  human  life,  which  are  essentially  religious,  he  was  stating 
for  an  aesthetic  people  in  an  aesthetic  form.  In  a  word,  it  was 
not  the  philosopher,  not  the  preacher  of  moral  lessons,  but  rather 
the  artist,  who  in  the  capacity  of  prophet  ever  directed  popular 
thought  to  higher  and  truer  religious  conceptions. 

Granted  that  the  artist  was  seeking  such  a  statement  of  reli- 
gious problems,  a  statement  which  had  far  more  influence  in 
Greece  than  any  other  form  of  statement ;  granted  further  that  art 
had  a  wonderfully  direct  and  sane  development  in  Greece  up  to 
the  end  of  the  Peloponnesian  War,  it  is  not  difficult  to  understand 
his  work  as  a  prophet  of  religion.  Each  step  of  artistic  progress 
was  thereby  a  step  of  religious  progress.  The  true  and  the  good 
were  more  and  more  clearly  stated  in  terms  of  beauty.  The  artist 
was  the  first,  again  and  again,  to  obtain  deeper  insight  into  reli- 
gion and  to  teach  men  what  he  had  learned.  Even  to-day  men 


RELATION  TO   ART  AND   LITERATURE        305 


find  this  religious  message  to  the  world  in  the  writings  of 
and  Aeschylus  and  Sophocles.  Polygnotus's  painting  of  the  under-***^  <A 
world  at  Delphi,  we  may  well  believe,  presented  a  more  profound 
view  of  the  future  life  than  had  been  attained  before.  As  for  the 
great  temple  statues  of  the  later  fifth  century,  we  have  abundant 
testimony  that  they  showed  an  insight  into  the  nature  of  the  gods 
not  previously  gained,  while  at  the  same  time  they  put  their  reli- 
gious message  in  an  aesthetic  form  which  every  one  might  feel. 
Thus  we  may  accept  the  statement  of  Dio  Chrysostom  l  that  the 
revelation  of  the  gods  came  to  the  Greeks  not  only  through  man's 
own  nature  and  through  the  state,  but  also,  though  less  directly, 
through  the  poet  and  the  sculptor. 

The  change  which  began  to  come  over  religion  in  Athens  dur- 
ing the  latter  part  of  the  fifth  century  is  not  difficult  to  understand 
from  this  standpoint  of  art.  Just  because  art  represented  infinite 
ideas  in  purely  finite,  human  forms,  art  could  be  a  power  to  inter- 
pret religious  truth  up  to  a  certain  point  and  no  further.  The 
change  came  along  two  lines.  A  rationalistic  philosophy  pointed 
out  the  inconsistency  of  human  gods.  Far  more  important  in  its 
effect  than  any  philosophy  was  the  tendency  of  art  to  use  divine 
beings  as  mere  forms  to  express  conceptions  human  and  not  divine. 
So  soon  as  art  and  religion  were  blended  for  an  end  purely  aes- 
thetic, so  soon  as  images  of  the  gods  were  made  not  for  real  wor- 
ship, but  as  the  traditional  manner  for  the  interpretation  of  human 
life,  the  artist  was  helping  to  break  down  religion  rather  than  to 
build  it  up.  The  Hermes  of  Praxiteles  is  the  type  of  this  new 
spirit,  a  Hermes  only  because  this  god  had  represented  an  ideal 
type  of  youth,  in  reality  the  embodiment  of  Athenian  young  man- 
hood as  Praxiteles  saw  it. 

l  Orat.  12,  p.  395. 


GREEK    RELIGION 2O 


CHAPTER   II 
RELIGION   AND  THE   ORGANIZATION   OF    SOCIETY 

1.  Religion  and  Ethics.  —  If  it  be  the  function  of  religion  to 
create  a  living  harmony  between  the  human  spirit  and  the  essen- 
tial reality  of  the  universe  in  which  man  lives,  there  can  be  no 
absolute  division  between  religion  on  the  one  hand  and  the 
organization  of  social  life  on  the  other.  The  organization  of  social 
life  includes  the  state  as  a  whole,  minor  groups  within  the  state, 
and  the  principles  of  conduct  which  receive  social  sanction.  In 
Greece,  as  elsewhere,  neither  ethics,  nor  social  activities,  nor  the 
state  are  in  any  sense  out  of  touch  with  religion. 

The  connection  between  religion  and  ethics  in  Greece  is  a  little 
difficult  to  grasp  because  the  meaning  of  both  terms  has  shifted 
somewhat.  For  us  ethics  means  the  ideals  of  right  conduct  and 
the  judgment  of  conduct  by  this  standard ;  conscience  is  not  a 
Greek  idea,  and  the  realization  of  "  the  good "  received  more 
emphasis  than  the  avoidance  of  what  is  not  "  right."  Even  the 
Greek  conception  of  justice  (or  righteousness)  had  far  more  of 
positive  content  than  ours.  It  is  not  unnatural  that  for  us  "  do  no 
wrong "  as  a  law  of  conduct  should  attract  more  attention  and 
seem  far  more  strenuous  than  "  do  what  counts  toward  filling  your 
place  in  society."  So  far  as  the  conception  of  religion  among 
the  Greeks  is  concerned,  the  absence  of  dogma  works  with  this 
different  ethical  standpoint  to  make  it  seem  more  foreign  to  our 
view. 

If  we  follow  the  common  practice  and  treat  Greek  mythology 
as  religious  dogma,  the  contradictions  between  morals  and  religion 
are  glaring.  There  is  good  reason  for  excluding  the  poets  from 

306 


THE  ORGANIZATION   OF  SOCIETY  307 

an  ideal  Greek  state  with  Plato,  and  for  branding  the  teller  of 
myth  as  grossly  impious  with  Isocrates.1  No  effort  of  Pindar  or 
Aeschylus  could  bring  ideal  harmony  between  myth  and  religious 
ideals ;  in  the  Homeric  poems  the  difference  between  the  reli- 
gious rule  of  the  gods  and  their  mythological  character  is  as  really 
recognized  as  it  is  unobtrusively  handled. 

And  if  we  turn  from  myth  to  religious  practice,  similar  contra- 
dictions are  found  between  ethics  and  worship.  Human  sacrifice 
seems  to  have  been  but  slowly  eradicated  from  certain  rituals; 
licentious  practices  in  worship  were  unusual  and  perhaps  of  foreign 
origin,  yet  in  Athens  the  strict  etiquette  for  woman  was  somewhat 
relaxed  to  meet  the  demands  of  worship  ;  it  cannot  be  disputed 
that  temperateness  gave  way  to  license  at  some  religious  festivals. 
Evidently  any  attempt  to  identify  moral  and  religious  demands 
in  our  thought  of  the  Greeks  is  doomed  to  failure. 

In  fact  the  connection  of  morals  and  religion  can  only  be  under- 
stood when  first  their  essential  independence  has  been  frankly 
recognized.  To  put  the  matter  bluntly,  religion  is  concerned  with 
a  man's  relation  to  his  god,  morals  with  his  relation  to  his  neigh- 
bor, or  rather  to  the  social  group  of  which  he  is  a  member.  The 
patriotic  devotion  of  Hector,  the  straightforward  energy  of  Achilles, 
the  courage  of  Diomedes  or  Ajax,  the  shrewdness  of  Odysseus, 
were  Greek  virtues  because  they  exemplified  the  demand  of  the 
community  on  the  individual.  Whatever  strengthened  the  state  and 
helped  to  make  it  lasting  was  crystallized  into  an  ethical  require- 
ment. The  murderer  was  killed  or  put  outside  the  pale  of  society. 
The  right  to  expose  children  perhaps  dated  from  a  time  when  it 
was  demanded  occasionally  as  a  measure  of  self-preservation.  On 
the  other  hand  the  care  of  orphans  and  the  protection  of  weaker 
members  of  society  were  the  outgrowth  of  that  sympathy  which 
binds  together  the  community.  Temperance,  purity,  truth,  are 
the  expression  of  social  demands,  not  the  outgrowth  of  any  reli- 
gion. One  great  interest  of  Greek  ethics  is  that  it  developed  in 
such  freedom  from  the  modifying  influences  of  religion. 

l  Or  at.  ii.  38-40. 


308  GREEK   RELIGION 

Religion,  on  the  other  hand,  had  no  cause  to  express  moral 
sentiments,  for  it  aimed  to  secure  the  cooperation  of  beings  quite 
other  than  men.  Until  these  higher  powers  were  humanized,  ideals 
of  morality  did  not  apply  to  them.  And  when  the  Homeric  poems 
gave  the  gods  an  almost  human  personality,  they  still  remained  as 
much  outside  the  control  of  a  moral  code  as  were  human  kings. 


FIG.  75.  — ATHENIAN  RED-FIGURED  VASE  PAINTING 

Orestes  pursued  by  two  Erinyes.  • 

Kings  ought  to  rule  justly ;  in  so  far  as  they  were  on  a  different 
plane  from  their  subjects,  they  could  throw  off  the  demands  of 
personal  morality.  Naturally,  a  just  rule  was  attributed  to  the  gods 
long  before  any  thought  that  a  Zeus  or  a  Hermes  should  exemplify 
the  moral  ideals  of  men.1  It  was  true  of  Greek  religion,  if  not  of 
ethnic  religions  generally,  that  the  earlier  stages  were  quite  inde- 
pendent of  morality,  except  in  so  far  as  the  self-preservation  of 
society  developed  a  moral  obligation  to  worship  the  gods. 

Not  enough  is  known  of  the  early  history  of  Greek  religion  to 
trace  in  detail  the  development  of  a  connection  between  morals 

l  Cp.  Plato,  Enthyphro,  5  E  f.;  Politic,  2,  p.  378  B. 


THE  ORGANIZATION   OF  SOCIETY  309 

and  religion.  In  the  epic  account  of  religion  this  connection  is 
well  under  way,  in  that  the  rule  of  the  gods  on  the  whole  makes 
for  justice,  and  the  caprices  of  the  gods  are  modified  by  a  sense  of 
right,  so  far  as  men  are  concerned.1  It  is  rather  a  striking  fact, 
however,  that  the  earlier  religious  expression  of  moral  demands 
should  not  be  in  the  gods  of  civic  worship,  but  in  beings  quite 
apart  from  the  Olympian  world.  Granted  that  Dike  and  Themis 
are  purely  allegorical  figures  embodying  man's  sense  of  justice, 
allegory  would  hardly  be  called  on  to  express  this  ideal  if  it  had 
already  found  adequate  expression  in  Zeus  and  Athena  and 
Apollo.  The  Erinyes  were  anything  but  allegorical  figures. 
Rooted  in  the  older  stratum  of  religious  thought,  fearful  beings 
that  pursued  those  who  transgressed  certain  laws,  they  represent 
perhaps  the  earliest  supernatural  punishment  of  wrong-doing  in 
Greece.  It  is  not  improbable  that  the  Erinyes  developed  from 
the  idea  that  the  souls  of  the  dead  pursued  in  vengeance  those 
who  had  wronged  them,  and  in  particular  that  when  a  child  killed 
its  parent,  the  soul  of  the  murdered  person  was  relentless  in  its 
pursuit  of  the  murderer.  In  the  Homeric  poems  the  Erinyes 
avenge  crimes  against  the  family  and  the  social  order  generally. 
Telemachus  dares  not  drive  his  mother  from  the  house  for  fear 
of  them2;  they  protect  the  rights  of  the  elder  brother3;  the  just 
curse  of  a  father  or  mother  they  bring  to  fulfilment 4 ;  they  protect 
the  suppliant  beggar,5  they  punish  perjury  and  rash  self-confidence,6 
they  uphold  the  order  of  the  universe.7  In  Homer,8  as  in  later 
writers,  their  work  of  vengeance  is  not  limited  to  this  world,  but 
continues  in  the  underworld.  In  a  word,  the  Erinyes  are  like 
personified  curses,  mighty  to  punish  sin  against  the  moral  order 
of  the  universe.  If  the  gods  of  ordinary  worship  regularly  pun- 
ished wrong-doing,  this  function  would  hardly  be  assigned  to 

1  Zeller,  Vortrage  und  Abhandlungen,  i.  3  f. ;  2.  55. 

2  Odyssey,  2.  135.  8  Iliad,  15.  204. 

*  Iliad,  9.  454,  571 ;    Odyssey,  2.  135 ;  n.  280;  cp.  Sophocles,  Oed.  Col.  1389. 

6  Odyssey,  17.  475.  •  Iliad,  19.  259 ;  Hesiod,  Erga,  803 ;  Iliad,  19.  87. 

*  Iliad,  19.  418 ;  cp.  Heracleitus,  Frag.  29 ;  Sophocles,  Track.  808 ;  Ajax,  1389. 
8  Iliad,  19.  259. 


3io  GREEK  RELIGION 

avenging  spirits ;  at  the  same  time,  the  existence  of  such  spirits 
indicated  the  demands  of  ethics  for  a  supernatural  sanction. 

In  the  preceding  chapter  the  work  of  literature  and  art  in  hu- 
manizing the  Greek  gods  was  discussed.  One  of  the  most  strik- 
ing cases  of  a  human  standard  for  divine  beings  is  found  in  the 
Homeric  account  of  the  gods  in  relation  to  the  order  of  the  uni- 
verse. Moira  (often  translated  fate)  is  not  any  power  higher  than 
the  gods,  and  therefore  the  ultimate  background  of  the  universe ; 
it  would  be  truer  to  call  it  the  conscience  of  the  gods.  As  men 
ought  to  uphold  the  moral  order,  ought  not  to  act  VTTC/J  /xdpov,  so 
the  gods  feel  under  obligation  to  uphold  the  moral  order  of  the 
universe.  Because  the  epic  makes  its  gods  human,  it  endows 
them  with  moral  sense,  and  thereby  makes  them  uphold  righteous- 
ness. From  the  epic  point  of  view,  then,  the  rule  of  the  gods 
inevitably  takes  something  of  a  moral  character,1  though  nothing 
of  the  sort  seems  to  have  been  intended  by  the  bards  themselves. 
That  the  same  process  should  go  on,  that  the  gods  should  come 
to  be  conceived,  not  simply  as  righteous  rulers,  but  also  as  right- 
eous persons,  would  be  the  natural  outcome  of  this  process  for  a 
people  which  laid  more  emphasis  than  the  Greeks  on  the  ethical 
standpoint.  In  Greece,  since  religion  was  dominated  by  art 
rather  than  by  ethics,  only  a  few  earnest  thinkers  demanded  that 
their  gods  be  moral  persons. 

Belief  in  the  righteous  rule  of  the  gods  was  the  natural  outcome 
of  another  line  of  thought.  The  existence  of  natural  law  in  the 
physical  world  and  of  eternal  principles  in  the  moral  world  early 
made  a  deep  impression  on  the  Greek  mind.  Even  among  savage 
races  natural  law  and  moral  law  are  generally  recognized,  far  as 
the  content  of  these  conceptions  may  be  from  the  content  which 
we  assign  to  them  to-day.  The  precepts  in  the  Works  and  Days 
of  Hesiod,  or  in  the  poetry  of  Theognis  and  Solon,  embody  the 
thought  of  generations  on  law  and  order  in  the  physical  world 
and  in  the  moral  world.  At  what  point  in  the  history  of  Greek 
thought  the  idea  of  a  unified  divine  rule  of  the  world  arose  it  is 

1  Cp.  Iliad,  3.  279 ;  16.  386 ;   Odyssey,  17.  475. 


THE  ORGANIZATION   OF  SOCIETY  311 

difficult  to  say  ;  in  the  Homeric  poems  there  are  traces  of  it  in  the 
use  of  the  words  6e6s  and  ol  Otoi;  in  the  tragedians  it  is  quite 
consistently  recognized,  though  perhaps  it  never  controlled  popu- 
lar thought.  It  was  inevitable,  however,  that,  wherever  the  divine 
rule  of  the  universe  was  recognized,  the  belief  in  physical  law  and 
in  moral  law  should  be  referred  to  the  gods.  If  the  universe  rests 
on  certain  well-defined  principles,  while  at  the  same  time  the  uni- 
verse is  the  expression  of  divine  rule,  those  principles  can  but  be- 
come the  "  unwritten,  not-to-be-shaken  laws  of  the  gods,  which 
no  commands  of  human  origin  can  supersede." 1 

Perhaps  the  strongest  force  in  bringing  religion  and  morals 
together  was  not  the  aesthetic  humanization  of  the  gods,  or  the 
philosophic  demand  for  unity  in  the  world,  but  rather  the  effort 
of  the  moral  consciousness  to  secure  the  highest  possible  sanction 
for  its  standards.  Where  the  simple  promise  was  not  sufficiently 
respected,  the  witness  of  the  gods  was  invoked  in  the  form  of  an 
oath ;  oaths  were  indeed  evaded  or  directly  broken  at  times,  but 
the  respect  which  was  shown  to  the  oath  grew  out  of  a  belief  in 
the  religious  sanction  it  afforded,  for  the  state  did  not  punish  per- 
jury. The  Homeric  poems  refer  not  infrequently  to  hospitality  as 
sanctioned  by  the  gods.  A  man's  legal  rights  were  always  confined 
to  the  limits  of  his  own  city  or  state.  When  he  went  abroad,  he 
must  appeal  to  the  gods  who  protected  strangers  in  order  to  secure 
entertainment  or  even  safety ;  with  hosts  who  honored  the  gods 
he  enjoyed  a  cordial  hospitality.  The  right  of  the  suppliant  was 
also  an  extra-legal  right,  based  solely  on  respect  for  the  gods. 
Pursued  by  the  mob,  a  man  could  find  temporary  refuge  in  any 
temple,  though  certain  shrines  had  a  special  right  of  sanctuary. 
This  right,  so  far  as  we  can  learn,  was  administered  to  secure  jus- 
tice rather  than  to  defeat  it.  Moreover,  the  murderer  might  ask 
for  purification  from  blood  as  one  of  the  rights  of  a  suppliant  in  a 
foreign  state.  In  a  word  there  were  rights  not  protected  by  the 
state,  but  generally  recognized,  for  which  the  sanction  of  religion 
was  specially  invoked. 

1  Sophocles,  Ant.  454  f. 


312  GREEK   RELIGION 

The  conception  that  all  wrong-doing  was  rooted  in  a  state  of 
mind  known  as  vftpis,  i.e.  a  reckless  self-assertion  with  no  respect 
for  the  demands  of  propriety  and  decency,  was  perhaps  the  focus 
for  the  religious  sanction  of  morality.  This  did  not  ordinarily 
involve  the  breaking  of  law,  though  it  might  lead  to  that  in  the 
end.  It  was  rather  the  failure  to  recognize  any  social  or  religious 
requirements  as  binding  on  conduct.  It  might  even  be  united 
with  broad  sympathy  and  noble  purpose  as  in  the  case  of  Oedipus  ; 
none  the  less  it  led  to  rash  violence,  and  under  the  rule  of  the 
gods  it  could  but  bring  suffering  and  overthrow  to  the  man  who 
yielded  to  it.  For  a  morality  which  judged  action  by  the  standard 
of  fitness  and  propriety,  this  conception  naturally  summed  up  all 
man's  tendencies  to  wrong.  It  could  not  be  punished  directly  by 
the  state ;  it  was  condemned  as  the  root  of  evil  by  the  social  con- 
sciousness ;  its  real  force  as  a  moral  idea,  however,  was  based  on 
the  religious  belief  that  under  the  divine  providence  it  worked  out 
its  own  retribution. 

The  question  has  often  been  asked  whether  religion  in  Athens 
tended  to  make  a  man  more  pure,  more  true  and  genuine,  more 
courageous,  more  just.1  Probably  its  influence  in  this  direction 
was  neither  strong  nor  consistent.  Morality  and  religion,  perhaps 
starting  quite  independently,  came  into  contact  at  many  points ; 
in  the  minds  of  some  great  thinkers  the  lines  between  the  two 
were  all  but  removed ;  for  the  people  the  conception  of  right  never 
blended  with  the  conception  of  religion.  It  is  evident  that  myth 
remained  quite  outside  the  pale  of  morality,  and  that  worship  was 
never  necessarily  moral.  The  fact  remains  that  the  rule  of  the 
gods  came  to  be  regarded  as  making  for  righteousness  in  that 
under  their  rule  the  sinner  brought  on  himself  the  punishment  of 
his  own  sin. 

2.  Religion  and  the  Social  Group.  —  The  importance  of  Greek 
religion  in  connection  with  the  structure  of  society  was  as  far- 
reaching  as  the  direct  bond  of  religion  and  ethics  was  fluctuating. 

1  Cp.  the  "  Prooemium  to  the  Laws  of  Taleucus,"  as  given  by  a  late  writer. 
Stobaeus,  Floril.  44.  20,  p.  279. 


THE   ORGANIZATION   OF  SOCIETY  313 

The  typical  social  unit  was  a  group  of  persons  who  believed  in 
descent  from  a  common  ancestor  (a  god  or  hero),  and  who  shared 
the  same  distinctive  religious  rites.  Whether  the  unit  were  a  small 
gens  or  the  state  at  large,  whether  it  were  really  based  on  blood 
relationship  or  rather  on  life  in  the  same  locality  or  on  similarity 
of  occupations,  it  was  fitted  into  the  same  framework;  i.e.  a  com- 
mon, distinctive  worship  was  developed,  and  some  god  or  hero 
became  the  patron  of  the  group  if  not  the  supposed  ancestor  of 
the  members  of  the  group.  In  the  earlier  Athenian  organization 
there  was  doubtless  some  foundation  in  fact  for  the  belief  that 
blood  relationship  was  a  factor  in  uniting  members  of  the  gens,  in 
connecting  gentes  into  phratries,  and  phratries  into  tribes  (<£uAm)  ; 
it  remains  true  that  the  common  worship  of  each  unit  was  as 
important  a  bond  of  union  as  the  supposed  blood  relationship. 
With  the  reorganization  of  the  state  in  the  fifth  century,  not  only 
the  gentes,  not  only  the  new  phratries  and  tribes  of  Cleisthenes, 
but  also  the  local  denies  had  each  its  divine  patron  and  each  its  dis- 
tinctive worship.  In  a  word,  each  element  in  the  political  and  social 
structure  had  the  same  framework,  and  that  of  a  religious  nature. 
It  was  a  natural  result  that  other  social  groups  adopted  much 
the  same  framework,  whatever  their  origin.  The  discussion  of 
private  worship J  has  shown  how  true  this  was  of  the  family.  The 
husband  and  wife  were  not  united,  as  it  were,  by  act  of  God.  The 
blessing  of  the  gods  for  this  union,  however,  was  devoutly  sought 
and  the  family  group  had  its  own  worship.  The  sanction  of  re- 
ligion was  even  more  important  for  the  relation  between  children 
and  parents  than  for  the  relation  of  husband  and  wife.  Injustice 
or  unkindness  to  one's  parents  was  in  itself  an  act  of  impiety,  for 
which  divine  punishment  might  be  expected.  It  was  an  essential 
duty  of  the  pious  man  to  offer  respect  and  worship  to  his  ancestors. 
Similarly  the  blessing  of  the  gods  was  sought  for  the  new-born 
child,  and  it  was  at  length  recognized  as  a  member  of  the  family, 
of  the  phratry,  and  of  the  state  with  religious  rites.  So  much  did 
religion  contribute  to  the  solidarity  of  the  family. 
*  Part  I,  Chap,  ii,  p.  120  f. 


3M  GREEK   RELIGION 

Other  forms  of  association  were  constituted  in  the  same  way. 
The  "  club "  of  young  men  at  the  palaestra  were  united  in  the 
worship  of  some  Hermes  or  Apollo ;  the  association  at  the  Pei- 
raeus  of  residents  from  some  foreign  city  was  a  religious  associa- 
tion, worshipping  the  god  of  their  fathers;  merchants  uniting  for 
trade,  artisans  joining  in  a  "  trade  union,"  groups  of  actors  or 
artists  or  philosophers,  constituted  their  associations  on  a  religious 
basis,  since  this  was  the  one  recognized  type  of  social  organization.1 

The  reaction  of  these  facts  on  religion  was  twofold  :  inasmuch 
as  each  social  group  had  its  own  worship  and  ordinarily  its  own 
patron  deity,  the  separateness  of  different  worships  was  empha- 
sized ;  on  the  other  hand  the  unification  of  the  Greek  world  in  its 
commercial,  intellectual,  and  artistic  interests  tended  to  make  the 
general  conceptions  of  religion  more  alike  and  more  widely  intel- 
ligible. The  great  force  in  bringing  the  Greek  world  together 
was  no  doubt  commerce.  The  sailor  and  the  merchant,  as  they 
travelled  from  place  to  place  with  their  wares,  carried  ideas  as 
well  as  material  wares  from  place  to  place.  The  fact  that  religious 
festivals  were  centres  of  trade  is  but  the  converse  of  the  fact  that 
ideas  as  to  religion  and  right  and  beauty  followed  in  the  steps  of 
trade.  Greeks  all  over  the  world  from  the  sixth  century  on  were 
learning  to  understand  each  other.  The  result  for  religion  was 
perhaps  to  place  an  undue  emphasis  on  whatever  was  peculiar ; 
rites  which  were  somewhat  alike,  however,  were  merged  into  com- 
mon types,  separated  only  by  place  and  by  tradition  as  to  the  circle 
of  worshippers.  There  is  no  doubt,  further,  that  the  emphasis  on 
the  individual  in  religion,  which  has  been  discussed  in  previous 
chapters,2  was  in  large  measure  due  to  the  emphasis  on  the  indi- 
vidual in  the  commercial  world. 

It  remained  true  that  the  circle  of  worshippers  in  any  cult  was 
strictly  and  definitely  limited.  It  might  be  a  wide  circle,  as  in 
the  worship  of  Zeus  at  Olympia ;  the  cult  might  be  hospitable  to 
all  Greeks,  as  in  the  worship  of  Demeter  at  Eleusis ;  or  again  it 
might  be  strictly  limited  to  the  few  who  lived  in  the  same  locality 

1  Cp.  supra,  p.  127  f.  3  Cp.  supra,  pp.  23!  f.,  266. 


THE  ORGANIZATION   OF  SOCIETY  31$ 

or  to  those  in  whose  veins  ran  the  same  blood.  The  principle 
remains  that  particularism  in  religion,  the  limitation  of  worshippers 
to  a  sharply  denned  group,  was  intimately  bound  up  with  the  fact 
that  each  element  in  the  social  structure  was  conceived  as  having 
a  religious  basis. 

3.  Religion  and  the  State.  —  Whatever  was  true  of  lesser  social 
units  was  even  more  true  of  the  state  as  a  whole,  in  the  same 
measure  that  the  state  was  more  important  than  the  tribe  or  the 
family.  As  the  family  or  the  phratry  claimed  common  blood 
from  one  divine  ancestor,  so  the  Athenians  traced  their  descent 
from  Ion  or  from  an  earth-born  king ;  so,  in  fact,  the  whole  Greek 
people  claimed  common  descent  from  Hellen,  the  father  of  Dorus 
and  Aeolus  and  the  grandfather  of  Ion.  Nor  was  this  mere 
poetic  fancy ;  it  was  regarded  as  a  fact  to  this  extent,  that  the 
naturalization  of  foreigners  took  the  form  of  a  (religious)  adoption 
into  the  state-family,  which  was  based  on  ties  of  common  blood 
and  common  worship. 

More  than  once  it  has  been  pointed  out  that  Greek  worship 
was  a  matter  of  local  cults,  each  one  theoretically  independent. 
The  common  bond  of  unity  is  found,  not  in  the  mythology  which 
brings  the  gods  into  one  family,  but  rather  in  the  state  which 
controls  these  separate  cults.  Aside  from  the  few  cults  which  were 
in  the  hands  of  some  section  of  the  state  rather  than  of  the  state 
as  a  whole,  each  shrine  was  a  sacred  spot  where  the  state  con- 
ducted worship  in  order  to  secure  for  itself  the  blessing  of  the 
god  who  could  best  be  approached  at  that  spot.  The  Greek 
state  seems  ordinarily  to  have  developed  through  a  union  of  many 
small  communities  (<rwoiKi.a-p.6s)  ;  as  this  process  went  on,  the  cults 
of  each  community  normally  were  adopted  by  the  nascent  state, 
and  if  they  were  situated  at  a  distance  from  the  capital,  a  branch- 
worship  was  often  established  there.1  In  either  case  the  worship 
was  offered  in  the  name  of  the  state.  Individuals  shared  the  wor- 
ship, and  of  course  the  benefits  of  the  worship,  for  the  reason  that 
they  were  the  citizens  who  constituted  the  state, 
l  Cp.  supra,  pp.  217  f..  238. 


316  GREEK  RELIGION 

It  is  evident  that  the  modern  conception  of  freedom  of  worship 
protected  by  the  state,  like  the  conception  of  a  state-church,  must 
be  set  aside  as  inapplicable.  The  state  was  itself  the  worshipper 
of  the  gods.  The  state  attended  to  the  administration  of  justice 
within  its  borders ;  the  state  maintained  relations  with  other 
states  j  in  the  same  way  it  was  the  business  of  the  state  to  main- 
tain relations  with  the  divine  powers.  There  was  no  "state- 
church,"  for  the  reason  that  religious  worship  was  itself  a  function 
of  the  state  from  the  time  when  the  palace  was  the  central  sanc- 
tuary, the  king  the  only  priest,  down  through  all  the  history  of 
Greece. 

As  the  representative  of  mankind  before  the  gods,  the  state 
directed  and  controlled  religion.  When  the  worship  of  Dionysus 
was  brought  to  Athens  from  Eleutherae,  it  was  undoubtedly  done 
by  act  of  the  state  ;  when  Pan  claimed  the  homage  of  the  Atheni- 
ans at  the  time  of  the  battle  of  Marathon,1  it  was  an  appeal  to  the 
state;  when  the  worship  of  Athena  Nike  on  the  Acropolis  was 
revived  and  her  temple  built,  it  was  done  by  a  state  decree  which 
is  still  extant 2 ;  when  foreigners  desired  to  institute  the  worship 
of  their  native  gods,  a  special  decree  gave  the  necessary  permis- 
sion.3 The  appointment  of  priests,  their  duties,  and  their  privi- 
leges, were  determined  in  general  by  religious  traditions ;  the 
state,  however,  might  exercise  its  power  to  make  any  changes 
that  were  deemed  best,  for  the  priests  were  but  agents  of  the 
state,  to  perform  its  worship  at  the  different  shrines.  Similarly 
the  forms  of  worship  were  handed  down  from  the  past  as  forms 
which  had  proved  pleasing  to  the  gods.  Funds  to  build  a  temple 
or  carry  on  a  worship  were  voted  by  the  state  when  necessary, 
and  temple  accounts  might  be  audited  like  other  accounts  of  the 
state.4  Even  the  administration  of  religious  law  was  in  the  hands 
of  state  courts.  Sacrilege,  such  as  the  mutilation  of  the  hermae 
or  the  profanation  of  the  Eleusinian  mysteries,  was  essentially  a 

1  Herodotus,  6.  105 ;  cp.  7.  189.  2  Dittenberger,  Sylloge,  911. 

8  C.I. A.  II.  168 ;  but  cp.  Schoeraann,  Griech.  Alt,  z.  170  f. 
4  Eg.  C.I.A.  I.  354. 


THE   ORGANIZATION    OF   SOCIETY  317 

matter  for  the  state  to  deal  with.1  The  Athenian  assembly  was 
free  to  relieve  Alcibiades  from  the  charges  of  sacrilege,  and  to 
revive  them  again  at  will.  The  contrast  between  established 
religion  and  private  "  mysteries  "  outside  this  pale  only  serves  to 
emphasize  the  fact  that  public  religion  was  a  function  of  the 
state.  Such  being  the  case,  the  direction  and  control  of  reli- 
gion was  of  course  in  the  hands  of  the  state  authorities ;  in 
religious  matters  as  in  civil  matters  the  state  was  only  limited 
by  that  body  of  custom  and  tradition  which  may  be  called  the 
constitution. 

The  connection  between  religion  and  government  went  one  step 
further  in  the  case  of  shrines  the  influence  of  which  was  not  confined 
to  one  particular  section  of  the  country.  The  control  and  protection 
of  these  shrines  was  in  the  hands  of  groups  of  states  which  united 
for  that  purpose.  Whether  such  groups  were  vague  and  all-inclu- 
sive, merely  an  agreement  not  to  interfere  with  worship  at  such  a 
shrine  as  that  of  Zeus  at  Olympia,  or  whether  they  were  definite 
political  bodies  like  the  Aetolian  league,  the  principle  remains  the 
same.  Where  the  religious  unit  is  larger  than  the  political  unit, 
a  political  unit  is  formed  to  carry  on  the  interstate  worship,  for 
there  is  no  such  thing  as  a  "  church  "  apart  from  the  family,  the 
tribe,  the  nation,  or  the  amphictyony. 

For  the  state  this  connection  with  religion  meant  the  blessing 
of  the  gods  on  its  undertakings  and  the  sanction  of  the  gods  for 
its  requirements.  Tradition  assigned  the  origin  of  the  laws  of 
Solon  and  of  Lycurgus  to  the  Delphic  god2 ;  in  other  words  a  divine 
origin  was  claimed  for  state  institutions.  The  oath,  e.g.  the  oath 
on  taking  office,  was  an  appeal  for  divine  sanction.  Treaties 
rested  on  the  same  basis,  since  the  curse  of  the  gods  was  invoked 
on  the  state  which  broke  the  treaty,  and  the  records  were  set  up 
in  some  important  shrine.  In  Athens  the  temple  of  Athena  on 
the  Acropolis  was  the  state  treasury ;  nothing  could  better  illus- 
trate the  identity  of  church  and  state,  or  the  bond  which  united 

1  Cp.  supra,  p.  263 ;  Demosthenes,  22,  27. 

2  Plutarch,  Solon,  14,  p.  85;  Herodotus,  i.  65, 


GREEK   RELIGION 


Athena  with  the  fortunes  of  Athens,  than  this  practice  by  which 
the  goddess,  as  it  were,  assumed  the  care  of  the  state  funds.  On 
the  Greek  coins  it  was  long  customary  to  place  the  symbol  of  the 
god  who  was  patron  of  the  issuing  city  :  Athena  on  coins  of  Athens 


*T|  )  //  d 


FIG.  76.  —  MARBLE  RELIEF  IN  ATHENS 

Athena  representing  Athens,  and  Hera  representing  Samos,  clasp  hands  above 
a  tablet  on  which  the  treaty  is  inscribed. 

and  Corinth,  Hera  on  coins  of  Argos,  Zeus  on  coins  of  Arcadia 
and  Elis.  The  representation  of  the  god  or  of  his  symbol  was 
practically  intended  to  mean  that  the  god,  and  the  state  that  wor- 
shipped this  god,  guaranteed  the  money  standard.  Nor  was  it 
only  on  coins  that  the  god  stood  for  the  state.  On  the  top  of  the 
tablet  recording  a  treaty  between  Athens  and  Samos  we  may  see 


THE  ORGANIZATION   OF  SOCIETY  319 

Athena  and  Hera  clasping  hands,  a  union  of  the  two  goddesses  to 
symbolize  the  union  of  their  respective  states.  • 

When  the  god  actually  stood  for  the  state,  it  is  no  wonder  that 
an  attack  on  belief  and  worship  should  occasion  the  charge  of 
political  treason ;  no  wonder,  on  the  other  hand,  that  Athenian 
orators  should  appeal  to  a  blind  confidence  in  the  care  of  the 
gods  for  their  city.  To  go  into  battle  without  first  obtaining 
favorable  omens  was  thought  sacrilegious,  even  though  men  like 
Demosthenes  were  said  to  neglect  this  precaution.1  Important 
matters,  such  as  relief  from  pestilence  or  the  means  of  meeting 
the  Persian  invasion,  were  referred  to  the  oracle  at  Delphi.  The 
state  which  honored  its  gods  could  but  expect  their  guiding  and 
protective  favor. 

In  later  Greek  thought  much  stress  was  laid  on  religion  as  a 
device  for  upholding  the  authority  of  the  state.2  Fear  of  the  gods 
and  of  punishments  they  inflicted  before  and  after  death  was  held 
up  as  an  essential  motive  for  obedience  to  law.  Religion  thus 
was  treated  merely  as  a  useful  superstition  (8eiai8cu/u,ovta),  insti- 
tuted by  clever  law-makers  to  keep  unruly  men  in  subjection  to 
the  state.  This  view  never  met  with  universal  acceptance.  It  was 
simply  an  imperfect  statement  of  the  truth  that  religion  was  a 
tremendous  force  acting  in  favor  of  the  existing  order.  Tradition, 
prescribing  methods  of  divine  worship,  involved  the  belief  that 
this  worship  was  efficacious  to  secure  divine  blessing  on  the  com- 
munity. The  whole  conception  of  the  moral  order  and  the  polit- 
ical order  was  bound  up  with  this  tradition.  Though  religion  was 
no  clever  device  of  ancient  law-makers,  all  the  power  of  religious 
conservatism  was  exerted  to  uphold  the  state  which  was  in  har- 
mony with  its  dictates. 

One  indirect  result  for  the  state  from  this  view  of  religion  can- 
not be  entirely  passed  over.  Inasmuch  as  worship  was  the  concern 
of  the  state,  all  the  splendor  and  magnificence  lavished  on  worship 

1  Aeschines,3.  131. 

2  See  Sextus  Empiricus,  9.  2.  17  f.;  Cicero,  De  not.  dear.  1.42/118  f. ;  Welcker, 
Griechische  Gotterlehre,  2.  45  f. 


320  GREEK   RELIGION 

redounded  to  the  honor  of  the  state  itself.  The  temples  erected 
at  Athens  in  the  fifth  century  were  splendid  monuments  for  the 
gods,  monuments  which  must  have  evoked  the  pride  of  Athenians 
in  their  city.  The  reorganization  of  worship,  which  enriched  it 
with  processions  and  contests,  with  feasts  and  spectacles,  united 
the  city  in  other  emotions  than  such  as  were  distinctly  religious. 
Common  worship  was  a  natural  bond  for  the  Greek  state.  Beauty 
and  magnificence  in  the  forms  of  worship,  wholly  apart  from  their 
religious  influence,  were  effective  means  to  develop  in  the  state 
a  consciousness  of  unity  and  an  honorable  pride,  if  not  real 
patriotism. 

For  religion  this  connection  with  the  state  was  no  less  important 
than  it  was  for  the  state.  This  magnificence  of  outward  form 
begot  no  spirit  of  earnest  belief  as  an  antidote  to  the  new  factors 
which  were  intruded  into  the  older  worship.  It  is  not  difficult  to 
trace  the  process  by  which  the  sense  of  beauty  began  to  raise 
religion  to  a  higher  plane,  until  the  same  sense  for  beauty  aided 
by  wealth  and  civic  pride  checked  the  nascent  spiritual  forces  to 
which  it  had  given  birth.  Athenian  religion  could  not  serve  God 
and  mammon ;  it  could  not  attain  true  spiritual  meaning  and  at 
the  same  time  express  the  glory  of  Athens  to  the  Greek  world. 

The  fact  that  worship  was  primarily  an  act  of  the  state  (or  of 
some  social  unit  within  the  state)  of  course  tended  to  check 
individualism  in  religion.  The  sinner  brings  divine  wrath  on  the 
state,  and  his  punishment  is  due  from  the  state  rather  than  from 
the  god  himself.  Thus  piety  becomes  a  part  of  civic  duty  instead 
of  an  individual  relation  with  the  gods.  The  sense  of  personal  sin, 
faith  in  a  god  who  cares  for  the  individual,  love  for  a  god  which 
serves  as  the  impulse  to  personal  service,  could  hardly  develop. 
Where  this  individual  relation  was  sought,  for  example,  as  an  act 
of  mystic  communion  with  the  divine,  it  must  be  sought  outside 
the  regular  channels  of  established  religion.  Accordingly  the 
development  of  individualism  worked  in  two  ways  :  it  encouraged 
those  forms  of  worship  which  did  not  have  the  sanction  of  the 
state,  and  in  the  end  it  tended  to  deprive  the  state  worship  of  any 


THE   ORGANIZATION   OF  SOCIETY  321 

genuine  religious  feeling.  When  the  civic  consciousness  was  at  its 
height,  however,  as  in  the  period  following  the  Persian  wars  at 
Athens,  religious  emotion  could  flow  unhindered  in  the  channel 
which  was  marked  out  for  it  by  the  natural  lines  of  social  develop- 
ment in  Greece. 

At  its  best  the  Greek  conception  of  religion  as  a  function  of  the 
state  produced  noble  results.  It  meant  that  religion  could  not  be 
any  selfish  matter,  for  it  benefited  primarily  the  state  and  not  the 
individual.  It  meant  that  religion  did  not  occupy  any  small  sec- 
tion of  a  man's  life,  like  a  religion  that  is  only  valid  on  Sunday, 
for  it  had  no  separate  place  in  his  life.  Moreover,  it  served  to 
combine  and  express  all  that  was  ideal  in  human  nature ;  patriot- 
ism and  sympathy,  love  of  the  beautiful  in  art  and  literature  and 
music,  the  sense  for  right  and  reverence  for  what  is  noble  —  in  so 
far  as  these  things  were  known  to  the  Greek  they  found  natural 
expression  in  the  religion  of  the  state  at  its  best.  The  relation 
between  the  individual  and  the  state,  which  was  needed  for  such 
a  development  of  Greek  religion,  was  anything  but  stable  ;  the 
development  of  individualism  in  Athens  ultimately  undermined 
both  the  state  and  the  meaning  of  the  state  religion. 


GREEK    RELIGION  —  21 


CHAPTER   III 
RELIGION  AND  PHILOSOPHY 

1.  Early  Greek  Philosophy;  Criticism  of  Religion.  —  Where 
religion  is  so  definitely  a  function  of  the  state  as  in  Greece,  one 
might  expect  to  find  the  priests  exercising  the  ultimate  power  in 
government  and  demanding  conformity  to  the  statement  of  belief 
which  they  formulated.  Nothing  could  be  further  from  the  truth. 
The  priests  were  but  citizens  who  might  be  called  on  for  public 
duty,  one  at  one  religious  shrine,  another  at  another.  As  for  a 
creed,  the  notable  absence  of  anything  of  the  sort  was  pointed  out  in 
the  Introduction  (p.  23  f.).  The  only  norm  of  worship  or  of  belief 
was  the  tradition  or  custom  (TO  v6fa.fuov)  which  had  proved  its 
rightfulness  by  the  test  of  long  experience. 

The  absence  of  creed  or  dogma  certainly  does  not  mean  the 
absence  of  the  element  of  belief  in  Greek  religion,  even  if  such  a 
thing  were  conceivable.  Worship  would  have  been  quite  mean- 
ingless unless  it  fitted  in  with  a  philosophy  of  life  which  stamped  it 
as  efficacious.  It  is  evident  at  once  that  mythology  was  not  the 
statement  of  this  belief.  In  a  religion  without  formulated  creed, 
actual  belief  can  only  be  ascertained  by  a  study  of  the  worship  to 
which  it  is  the  counterpart.1  In  the  chapter  on  the  Greek  gods, 
an  attempt  was  made  to  state  this  belief.  It  now  remains  to  con- 
sider the  connection  between  the  practical  belief  or  "working 
creed  "  and  the  general  conception  of  the  universe  which  in  the 
course  of  time  was  formulated  and  defined  by  the  great  philoso- 

1  It  has  sometimes  been  held  that  in  the  epic  worship  is  described  as  out  of 
touch  with  belief.  Such  a  state  of  affairs  is  hardly  conceivable.  The  truth  is  that 
the  epic  stories  of  the  gods  are  somewhat  out  of  touch  with  the  belief  implied  in  the 
account  of  worship. 

322 


RELIGION   AND   PHILOSOPHY  323 

phers  of  Greece.  One  of  the  most  important  phases  of  Greek 
philosophy  was  its  attempt  to  state  the  conceptions  which  underlie 
and  justify  religion ;  perhaps  the  strongest  influence-  of  Greek 
religion  in  later  civilization  has  been  through  the  vehicle  of  philoso- 
phy. It  does  not  fall  within  the  scope  of  the  present  volume  to 
consider  this  philosophy  of  religion.  The  two  questions  which 
must  be  considered  are :  (i)  the  debt  of  philosophy  to  religion, 
and  (2)  the  reaction  of  philosophic  thought  on  popular  belief  and 
worship. 

In  the  Homeric  poems  there  is  little  or  no  trace  of  philosophy 
proper,  little  or  no  conscious  reflection  on  human  life  and  on  the 
universe  at  large.  At  the  same  time  the  attitude  of  man  toward 
the  world,  as  pictured  by  the  poet,  is  full  of  promise  for  the  future 
development  of  philosophy.1  The  world,  including  man,  is  treated 
as  a  harmonious  whole  under  the  rule  of  the  gods  ;  the  account  of 
this  world  is  marked  by  reasonableness  and  sanity  and  simplicity ; 
a  genuinely  Greek  sense  of  proportion  has  left  its  stamp  on  the 
whole  picture.  The  world  and  human  life  are  explained  in  terms 
of  divine  beings.  The  unity  of  the  world  is  clearly  reflected  in  the 
unity  of  the  divine  rule,  and  "  natural  law  "  is  dimly  suggested  by 
the  conception  of  Moira.2  These  gods  of  Homer  are  not  objects 
of  fancy  nor  mere  physical  powers  ;  they  represent  rather  the  idea 
that  the  controlling  forces  in  the  world  are  akin  to  man  in  their 
essential  nature.  Aristotle3  quotes  other  thinkers  as  holding  that 
the  early  poets  (including  Homer)  anticipated  the  philosophy  of 
Thales  in  the  statement  that  Oceanus  and  Tethys  were  the  parents 
of  the  gods.  With  reference  to  the  point  here  under  discussion 
the  testimony  of  the  Homeric  poems  is  far  more  important  in 
another  direction,  viz.  as  showing  how  myth  paved  the  way  for 
philosophy  in  its  relation  to  religion.  The  fundamental  concep- 
tions of  unity  in  the  world,  of  laws  of  nature,  and  of  an  ideal  back- 
ground for  nature  and  human  life,  are  outlined  in  the  epic  picture 
of  the  gods. 

1  Cp.  Zeller,  Philosophic  der  Griechen,  i.  41  f.  2  Cp.  supra,  p.  310. 

«  Aristotle,  Metaph.  i.  2,  p.  983  b.  30 ;  Iliad,  14.  201,  246. 


324  GREEK   RELIGION 

In  the  Theogony  of  Hesiod  totally  different  subjects  are  handled 
from  much  the  same  standpoint.  The  poet's  acknowledged  pur- 
pose is  to  explain  the  origin  of  the  universe ;  since  the  world  is 
regarded  as  the  expression  of  divine  beings,  the  explanation  takes 
the  form  of  a  theogony.  It  is  clear  that  the  desire  for  explanation 
is  a  philosophical  motive  and  that  the  questions  proposed  are  much 
the  same  as  those  which  will  engage  the  attention  of  the  later  phi- 
losopher ;  the  method  of  treatment  remains,  as  for  Homer,  primarily 
mythological.  That  the  beginning  of  things  is  "  Chaos,"  that  the 
active  principle  in  development  is  Eros,  that  the  development  of 
the  world  is  an  orderly  progress  broken  by  significant  crises,  that 
moral  forces  intervene  and  moral  beings  (e.g.  Nemesis,  Themis, 
Dike)  appear  in  the  list  of  divinities l  —  would  seem  to  indicate 
that  the  poem  includes  some  results  of  serious  reflection.  These 
results  are  not  directly  in  line  with  religious  belief,  while  at  the 
same  time  they  are  in  no  way  opposed  to  it,  and  indeed  the  terms 
in  which  they  are  stated  are  terms  of  religious  thought.  Almost 
the  same  thing  may  be  said  of  the  later  theogonies,  for  they  too 
use  religious  terms  for  ideas  that  are  on  the  verge  of  philosophy, 
and  they  do  not  conflict  with  established  religion.  That  reflection 
as  to  the  world  and  man  should  move  thus  freely  within  the  sphere 
of  religion  and  mythology,  is  as  significant  for  religion  as  it  is  for 
the  future  development  of  philosophy. 

With  the  beginning  of  philosophy  proper  in  Ionia  the  problems 
remain  much  the  same  ;  while  the  attitude  toward  established  reli- 
gion varies,  these  problems  are  answered  not  in  terms  of  divine 
beings,  but  in  a  much  more  abstract  manner.  There  is  the  same 
effort  to  discover  the  fundamental  unity  of  the  world,  but  the 
result  is  attained  by  positing  some  "  first  principle  "  —  water,  or 
fire,  or  some  more  fundamental  substance  still  —  out  of  which  is 
developed  the  world  as  we  know  it.  The  same  interest  in  the 
process  of  development  continues,  only  it  is  now  treated  as  a 
development  from  this  one  fundamental  being  to  the  complex 

l  Supra,  p.  228  f. ;  Decharme,  La  critique  da  traditions  religieuses  chez  les 
Grecs,  pp.  14,  19. 


RELIGION   AND  PHILOSOPHY  325 

world  of  phenomena.  And  the  idea  of  an  intelligent  law  govern- 
ing this  process,  which  has  been  more  or  less  clearly  outlined  in 
earlier  poetry,  is  emphasized,  for  example,  in  the  Necessity  of  Anaxi- 
mander,  the  Measure  of  Heracleitus,  the  Nous  of  Anaxagoras. 

This  nature-philosophy  did  not  necessarily  involve  any  direct 
attack  either  on  myths  or  on  the  ideas  of  the  gods  in  connection 
with  worship.  The  advent  of  this  new  type  of  thought  meant  sim- 
ply that  the  search  for  causes,  which  had  been  satisfied  by  an 
answer  from  religion,  was  now  turned  in  a  different  direction,  or 
at  least  formulated  its  thought  in  different  terms.  Thales  is  re- 
ported as  saying  that  the  world  is  full  of  gods,1  but  he  explains 
the  phenomena  of  nature — earthquakes,  the  movements  of  the 
heavenly  bodies,  vegetable  and  animal  growth  —  in  terms  of  a 
"  first  principle "  which  has  nothing  to  do  with  the  gods.  If 
Anaximander  accepted  the  gods  as  beings  who  lived  far  longer 
than  men,  or  Anaximenes  said  that  his  first  principle  (air)  was  a 
god,2  these  statements  were  quite  apart  from  their  explanation  of 
the  world,  for  which  gods  were  not  needed.  Although  Heracleitus 
and  Empedocles  made  much  of  religion,  the  gods  of  public  wor- 
ship were  not  the  ultimate  principles  that  underlie  the  universe  ;  for 
Parmenides  the  gods  apparently  belonged  in  the  realm  of  opinion, 
not  in  the  realm  of  pure  being;  Anaxagoras  perhaps  did  not  di- 
rectly attack  religion,  but  his  philosophy  had  little  or  no  place  for 
the  gods.  Even  Democritus,  the  contemporary  of  Socrates  and 
in  his  far-reaching  studies  the  precursor  of  Aristotle,  has  no  differ- 
ent standpoint  in  his  treatment  of  religion.  For  him,  as  for  Em- 
pedocles, the  gods  were  celestial  spirits  (not  immortal)  who  wotk 
for  the  good  or  evil  of  man,  spirits  who  have  hardly  a  more  impor- 
tant place  in  cosmic  development  than  has  man  himself.  Popular 
belief  was  allowed  to  remain  as  a  tiling  apart  from  philosophy, 
while  its  foundations  were  completely  undermined. 

Three  of  these  early  thinkers  took  a  positive  attitude  toward 
mythology  and  popular  religion.  Xenophanes  with  unsparing  irony 
attacked  the  anthropomorphic  gods,  gods  that  a  red-haired  or 

1  Aristotle,  De  anima,  i.  5,  p.  411  a.  7.  2  Cicero,  De  not.  dear.  I.  10/26. 


326  GREEK  RELIGION 

snub-nosed  race  would  picture  in  their  own  image,  gods  that  were 
born  and  could  weep,  gods  that  the  poets  described  as  immoral. 
Heracleitus  with  equal  vehemence  makes  fun  of  popular  super- 
stition both  in  belief  and  in  worship.  Yet  neither  Xenophanes 
nor  Heracleitus  were  ready  to  discard  religion  from  their  scheme 
of  thought.  It  was  reserved  for  Empedocles  to  give  the  gods  a 
definite  place  in  his  system  as  beings  far  greater  than  men,  though 
not  immortal,  and  to  undertake  an  actual  reform  of  public  worship. 
Here  Empedocles  was  following  in  the  steps  of  that  great  religious 
thinker  Pythagoras.  Just  how  much  of  the  so-called  Pythagorean 
philosophy  dates  back  to  Pythagoras  it  is  not  easy  to  say;1  it  is 
clear,  however,  that  he  was  a  great  religious  and  ethical  leader 
who  entirely  reorganized  religious  practice  for  his  followers  in 
accordance  with  a  system  of  belief  which  had  nothing  to  do 
with  the  epic  account  of  the  gods.  That  there  was  one  divine 
being  of  purity  and  holiness ;  that  the  soul  of  man  came  from  God 
and  was  destined  to  return  to  its  source  only  by  strenuous,  long- 
continued  effort  to  escape  from  evil ;  that  all  human  life  should  be 
dominated  by  this  high  endeavor,  —  such  were  the  principles  of 
his  system.  By  its  adoption  of  certain  early  Greek  practices  as 
well  as  by  its  high  ideals  Pythagoreanism  gained  a  place  in  the 
Greek  world,  and  in  the  course  of  time  some  ideas  which  it  had  in- 
cluded became  fundamental  for  the  philosophical  account  of  religion. 
In  Athens  itself  philosophic  discussion  found  small  lodgement 
before  the  middle  of  the  fifth  century  B.C.  Earlier  in  this  century, 
as  has  been  shown,2  there  was  a  tendency  on  the  part  of  poets  in 
Athens  (as  elsewhere)  to  criticise  religious  conceptions  from  the 
standpoint  of  ethics.  Although  this  movement  was  inspired  by 
conscious  reflection  on  human  conduct,  it  was  hardly  systematic 
enough  to  be  termed  philosophical.  It  is  only  to  be  noted  that 
the  first  criticism  of  religion  came  as  it  were  from  within,  from 
poets  inspired  by  religion  itself.  Moreover,  such  criticism  was 
not  connected  with  any  popular  interest  in  the  study  of  philo- 
sophical problems. 

1  Cp.  supra,  p.  247.  *  Supra,  p.  356  L 


RELIGION   AND   PHILOSOPHY  327 

It  was  Anaxagoras  who  ".  first  established  philosophy  in  Athens  " 
about  the  middle  of  the  fifth  century.  Frankly  pursuing  the  early 
Ionian  method  of  neglecting  religion,  he  might  well  have  given  a 
physical  explanation  of  the  heavenly  bodies  (known  as  gods  in 
myth)  without  serious  challenge,  had  it  not  been  for  his  connec- 
tion with  Pericles.  That  he  was  impugned  as  an  atheist  and 
obliged  to  leave  Athens  is  merely  a  hint  of  the  sharp  conflict 
between  religion  and  philosophy  soon  to  follow. 

Up  to  the  middle  of  the  fifth  century  B.C.  philosophy  had  treated 
religion  with  utmost  freedom,  not  causing  any  scandal  because  it 
gained  little  or  no  hold  on  the  community.  But  about  this  time 
conditions  changed  in  Athens.  The  so-called  Sophists  found  a 
cordial  welcome ;  in  the  relatively  small  community  a  considerable 
party  of  intellectual  men  were  deeply  affected  by  a  philosophy 
that  for  the  time  being  was  a  disintegrating  force  in  politics, 
morals,  and  religion,  yet  over  against  this  party  of  the  new  thought 
the  old  religion  was  still  vital  enough  to  rally  a  strong  body  of 
supporters ;  moreover,  the  political  ferment  was  such  that  any 
question  affecting  the  tradition  of  the  state  was  easily  made  a 
matter  for  state  action. 

In  his  treatise  on  the  gods  Protagoras  is  quoted  as  saying  that 
it  was  impossible  to  know  the  gods,  whether  they  exist  or  whether 
they  do  not  exist ; *  Thrasymachus  went  so  far  as  to  declare  that 
if  the  gods  existed,  they  were  as  useless  for  man  as  if  they  did  not 
exist.  Explanations  of  religion  were  offered,  —  that  gods  were 
suggested  by  beneficent  forces  of  nature  (Prodicus),2  that  stories 
of  the  gods  were  allegories  (Antisthenes  the  Cynic),  that  gods 
were  deified  ancestors  (Euhemerus,  about  300  B.C.).  A  more 
radical  explanation  is  credited  to  followers  of  the  early  Sophists  in 
Athens,  namely,  that  the  gods  were  an  invention  of  clever  states- 
men to  make  men  fear  hidden  crime  —  a  "  useful  lie."  Such  an 
opinion  is  outlined  in  a  fragment  from  the  Sisyphus  of  Critias,3  a 
tragedy  in  which  impiety  is  set  forth  with  skill  and  detail  only  to 

1  Cp.  supra,  p.  262  f.    Diog.  Laer.  9.  51 ;   Plato  Theaet.  162  D. 

«  Cp.  Sext.  Empir.  Math.  9.  18.  51.  8  Nauck,  Trag.graec.jrag.  p.  771. 


328  GREEK   RELIGION 

find  a  most  conventional  overthrow  at  the  end.  The  contrast 
between  life  according  to  nature  (<£u<m)  and  life  according  to 
humanly  imposed  principles  (vd/xw)  was  fundamental  with  the 
Sophists ;  it  only  remained  to  class  religion  with  conventions 
devised  and  imposed  by  man,  to  bring  it  under  condemnation. 
This  last  step  was  taken  covertly  by  Critias,1  more  openly  by  the 
"  atheists,"  such  as  Diagoras  and  Hippo. 

When  philosophic  thinkers  explained  away  the  reality  of  religion 
and  won  credence  for  a  non-religious  theory  of  the  world,  com- 
plete tolerance  by  a  state  that  called  itself  religious  was  absolutely 
impossible.  In  the  series  of  cases  where  men  were  charged 
with  impiety,2  it  is  clear  that  the  Athenians  found  it  necessary  to 
protect  from  attack  the  practices  of  public  worship,  and  that  pub- 
lic denial  of  the  gods  was  not  permitted.  So  long  as  philosophy 
neglected  religion,  it  had  aroused  little  or  no  opposition ;  when 
its  followers  arrayed  themselves  against  religion,  they  met  the 
penalty  of  arraying  themselves  against  the  state. 

2.  Plato  and  his  Successors  ;  the  Philosophic  Statement  of  Reli- 
gion. —  Socrates,  a  devout  man  put  to  death  on  the  charge  of  im- 
piety by  a  people  that  saw  only  the  negative  side  of  his  work,  laid 
the  foundation  for  a  philosophy  which  gave  full  place  to  the  funda- 
mental principles  of  religion.  In  his  confident  search  for  the 
knowledge  he  claimed  not  to  possess,  he  professed  to  act  in  obe- 
dience to  a  divine  call  and  with  a  definitely  religious  aim.  As  for 
this  faith  that  there  is  an  absolute  truth  behind  the  visible  universe, 
and  that  it  is  identical  with  goodness,  are  not  these  the  ideals 
which  Greek  religion  had  stated,  however  dimly,  for  the  people? 
The  faith  of  Socrates,  interpreted  and  developed  by  his  successors, 
reestablished  on  a  philosophic  basis  not  only  science  and  ethics 
and  politics,  but  also  religion.  To  recognize  the  existence  and 
validity  of  general  ideas  meant  the  end  of  that  philosophy  which 
found  no  truth  outside  the  consciousness  of  the  individual.  It 

1  Reputed  an  "  atheist,"  cp.  Andocides,  De  myst.  47 ;   Philostratus,  Vita  soph. 
I.  16.  i. 
2  Cp.  supra,  p.  262. 


RELIGION   AND   PHILOSOPHY  329 

involved  the  recognition  of  ultimate  ideals  which  could  only  be 
understood  in  the  light  of  religion.  However  great  the  gulf  be- 
tween these  ideals  and  the  actual  religion  of  the  Athenian  state, 
such  a  philosophy  was  on  a  totally  different  plane  from  the  philoso- 
phy which  had  neglected  or  attacked  existing  religion. 

It  need  therefore  be  no  surprise  that  Plato  so  frankly  accepted 
traditional  worship,  and  even  religious  teaching  from  many  sources, 
however  sharply  he  criticised  the  mythology  of  the  poets.  The 
picture  of  Cephalus  in  his  home,  sacrificing  to  Zeus,1  stands  in 
sharp  contrast  with  the  attacks  on  religion  by  the  later  Sophists 
and  their  followers.  In  the  Republic*  questions  of  worship  are 
respectfully  referred  to  the  oracle  at  Delphi ;  the  same  respect  for 
the  oracle,  and  for  seers  generally,  is  found  in  the  Laws,5  though 
here  Plato  takes  up  quite  in  detail  the  religious  institutions  of  the 
city.  Hestia,  Zeus,  and  Athena  are  to  be  worshipped  in  the  cen- 
tre of  the  city ;  each  tribe  and  each  class  of  citizens  is  to  have  its 
god  ;  temples  and  divine  images  and  priests  are  to  be  established  ; 
in  the  religious  calendar  no  day  will  be  without  sacrifices  to  the 
gods.4  Much  or  little  as  this  may  mean,  it  evidently  means  that 
Plato  recognized  the  importance  of  the  popular  worship  and  gave 
it  full  place  in  an  ideal  state.5  He  was  an  out-and-out  opponent 
of  the  "  atheism  "  which  had  had  a  certain  vogue  in  the  Athens  of 
his  earlier  years.6 

Perhaps  it  is  fair  to  say  that  Plato's  interest  in  worship  is  quite 
as  much  theological  and  even  sociological,  as  it  is  distinctly 
religious.  He  is  unsparing  in  his  criticism  of  the  mythology  of 
the  poets,  but  his  standard  for  testing  myth  is  his  theological 
conception  of  divinity,  a  conception  based  on  earlier  thought, 
on  the  imagination  of  the  poets,  most  of  all  on  ideas  connected 
with  actual  worship.  In  the  second  and  third  books  of  the  Re- 
public Plato  develops  this  conception  of  God,  as  over  against  the 

1  Pohtia,  i,  p.  328  C ;  cp.  Lysis,  207  A.  ^Politia,  4,  p.  427  B. 

8  Leg.  8,  p.  828  A ;  5,  p.  738  B,  C. 

4  Leg .  5,  p.  745  B ;  8,  p.  828  C ;  8,  p.  828  D,  E  and  6,  p.  758  E. 

5  Cp.  Leg.  2,  p.  653  D  and  5,  p.  738  D. 
6Cp.  Leg.  10,  pp.  891  B,  888  A.  908  B.  f. 


330  GREEK   RELIGION 

representation  of  the  poets :  (a)  God  is  absolutely  good,  and 
therefore  the  cause  only  of  good,  not  of  evil ;  evil  is  sometimes 
concealed  good,  as  in  punishment,  or  else  it  does  not  come  from 
God  ;  (£)  God  is  absolutely  simple  and  true ;  He  does  not  change 
His  form,  nor  does  He  deceive  men.  That  the  gods  dispute  and 
fight  with  each  other,  that  they  are  capricious  in  dealing  with  men, 
that  they  are  immoderate  in  appetite  or  passion  is  contrary  to  the 
very  idea  of  God  as  conceived  by  Plato.  Gods  who  can  be  bribed 
by  gifts  or  moved  by  incense  and  petition  are  no  more  gods  than 
if,  on  the  other  hand,  they  are  to  be  conceived  as  absolutely  indif- 
ferent to  human  needs.1  In  this  theology  he  is  simply  carrying 
out  in  a  consistent  way  what  poets  like  Pindar  and  Aeschylus  had 
attempted  before ;  yet  Plato's  method  is  not  quite  the  same,  for  he 
develops  his  conception  of  God  systematically  before  applying  it 
to  poetic  myths.  It  is  definitely  a  theology,  worked  out  on  the 
basis  of  popular  belief  and  used  as  a  standard  to  judge  popular 
story. 

The  theology  thus  far  considered  has  served  primarily  a  nega- 
tive purpose,  viz.,  to  be  a  standard  for  the  criticism  of  popular 
errors.  In  so  far  as  we  can  speak  of  a  Platonic  system  of  thought, 
this  conception  of  God  is  identified  with  the  Idea  of  the  Good  which 
is  pure  Being,  the  ultimate  source  of  the  world  of  thought  and  the 
world  of  things.  Whatever  reality  may  be  assigned  to  gods  of 
popular  faith,  a  question  which  is  not  clearly  treated,  they  are  sub- 
ordinate to  this  ethico-logical  Being.  While  Plato's  theology  is 
based  on  Greek  religion,  it  had  little  or  no  power  to  affect  popular 
belief.  Philosophy,  the  effort  to  reach  truth  and  reality  and 
goodness  along  the  path  of  knowledge,  became  itself  the  religion 
of  his  followers.  The  connections  which  Plato  established  between 
philosophy  and  religion  often  reappeared  in  Greek  thought,  and 
exerted  a  profound  influence  in  shaping  the  theology  of  the  Chris- 
tian church. 

The  religion  of  the  people  found  little  place  in  the  systematic 
philosophy  of  Aristotle.  Even  as  a  sociological  phenomenon  it 

1  Politia,  2,  p.  364  B  ff. ;  Leg.  4,  p.  717  A;  10,  p.  909  B. 


RELIGION   AND   PHILOSOPHY  331 

attracted  much  less  attention  than  might  have  been  expected.  At 
the  same  time  Aristotle  freely  uses  the  name  of  God  for  the  intel- 
ligent Being  which  is  fundamental  in  the  universe,  at  once  the 
First  Cause  and  the  Final  Cause  in  the  world  of  things.  Like 
Plato,  Aristotle  finds  it  necessary  to  assume  a  first  principle, 
eternal,  good,  intelligent,  and  in  this  principle  he  discovers  the 
truth  which  popular  religion  had  dimly  grasped  in  its  imperfect 
conceptions  of  the  Divine.  The  "  cosmological  argument "  for 
God's  existence,  viz.,  that  the  chain  of  causes  in  the  world  de- 
mands a  first  cause,  and  the  "  teleological  argument,"  viz.,  that 
the  evidence  of  purpose  in  the  world  is  only  to  be  explained 
by  assuming  that  the  first  cause  acts  with  intelligent  purpose, 
have  been  passed  on  to  Christian  theology  in  much  the  form  that 
Aristotle  gave  them. 

The  later  philosophy  of  Greece  presents  little  that  is  new  on 
the  point  now  under  discussion.  Belief  in  the  gods  is  rarely 
attacked,  even  by  the  so-called  sceptics,1  who  attack  the  philo- 
sophic arguments  for  the  divine  existence.  The  atomistic  philoso- 
phy of  the  Epicureans  leaves  no  opportunity  for  gods  to  interfere 
with  the  course  of  events  in  the  world.  None  the  less,  Epicurus 
and  his  followers  assumed  the  existence  of  gods,  spirits  of  finest 
matter  who  are  untroubled  by  thought  of  man  or  any  other  care. 
That  men  should  fear  them  or  bring  petitions  to  them  involves  a 
wrong  idea  of  the  gods ;  the  wise  man's  worship  consists  in 
admiration  for  their  ideal  beauty  and  in  contemplation  of  their 
perfectness.2  Although  the  Epicureans  were  far  from  denying  the 
importance  of  religion,  this  worship  of  the  "  wise  man  "  stood  in 
such  sharp  contrast  with  the  old  worship  practised  by  the  people, 
that  some  antagonism  necessarily  developed. 

The  Stoics  alone  among  these  later  schools  of  thought  made  a 
serious  effort  to  deal  with  philosophy  in  its  relation  to  religion. 
The  gods  of  popular  worship  were  accepted  by  the  Stoics,  as  by 
the  Epicureans,  and  explained  as  beings  higher  than  man,  which 

1  E.g .  Carneades ;  Sextus  Emp.  Adv.  math.  9.  137  f. 

2  Lucretius,  3. 18  f. ;  5.  147  f. ;  Diog.  Laer.  10.  123  f. 


332  GREEK  RELIGION 

had  no  great  importance  in  the  theory  of  the  universe.  Myths 
of  the  gods  were  assigned  more  importance  as  allegories  that 
taught  moral  lessons  or  truths  about  processes  in  nature.1 
The  religion  of  the  philosopher,  however,  was  on  a  different 
plane. 

The  fundamental  principle  of  the  Stoic  thought  was  a  pan- 
theistic materialism  which  made  physics  the  basis  of  philosophy, 
and  theology  a  branch  of  physics.  The  world  process  was  a 
cycle,  from  the  original  divine  fire  to  air  and  water  and  earth 
and  the  universe  we  know,  and  again  from  this  universe  back  to 
fire.  The  divinity  was  none  other  than  material  fire  ;  but  the 
presence  of  consciousness  in  man  proved  that  the  divine  was  also 
conscious,  while  the  perfect  beauty  of  the  world  and  the  perfect 
adaptation  of  means  to  ends  proved  that  the  governing  power 
was  intelligent.  This  God,  the  ultimate  source  of  all  things, 
and  the  intelligent  force  present  in  all,  it  was  the  business  of 
the  philosopher  to  know  and  to  worship.  Evil  was  explained 
away  or  denied,  for  the  immanent  God  was  perfectly  good. 
The  reality  of  religious  sentiment  among  the  Stoics  is  evinced  by 
the  Hymn  to  Zeus  (for  this  pantheistic  God  is  called  Zeus)  of 
Cleanthes.2 

Later  developments  of  Greek  philosophy,  in  particular  the 
effort  of  the  Neoplatonists  to  revive  philosophical  religion  as  over 
against  Christianity,  may  be  passed  over  here.  Though  the  forms 
of  Greek  worship  possessed  a  wonderful  tenacity,  their  hold  on 
the  thinking  public  rapidly  grew  weaker  after  the  Peloponnesian 
war  until  the  philosopher  felt  that  he  had  fully  satisfied  their  de- 
mands by  assigning  to  the  older  gods  some  minor  place  in  his 
system.  The  importance  of  the  movement  here  under  discussion, 
as  has  already  been  pointed  out,  is  to  be  found  not  in  Greece 
itself  but  rather  in  the  history  of  Christian  theology.  Greek  re- 
ligion of  the  fifth  century  had  enough  reality  and  vitality  to  persist 
in  forms  of  worship  and  superstition  even  to  the  present  day; 

1  Cp.  Cornutus,  Theol.  graec.  compendium. 

2  Quoted  in  Stobaeus,  Phys.  i.  2,  p.  30. 


RELIGION   AND   PHILOSOPHY  333 

and  furthermore  it  furnished  content  to  a  philosophy  of  religion 
which  was  passed  on  to  the  Christian  church  and  which  still  in- 
fluences Christian  thought.  It  was  the  truth  in  Greek  religion 
combined  with  the  fearless  freedom  of  Greek  thought  which 
produced  this  heritage  for  a  later  civilization. 


CHAPTER  IV 
THE  DISTINCTIVE   NATURE  OF  GREEK   RELIGION 

1.  "  Monotheism  "  in  Greece.  —  Until  recently  writers  who  have 
discussed  Greek  religion  as  distinct  from  Greek  mythology  have 
ordinarily  sought  for  evidence  of  Christian  ideas  in  Greek  litera- 
ture instead  of  studying  Greek  religion  for  itself.  In  the  present 
volume  this  course  has  been  avoided ;  the  effort  has  been  rather 
to  treat  Greek  worship  and  belief  from  the  Greek  point  of  view. 
In  conclusion  perhaps  we  may  fairly  ask  again  whether  the  word 
"  religion  "  has  been  rightly  used,  whether  the  phenomena  under 
discussion  do  satisfy  our  idea  of  religion.  Many  of  them  do.  not ; 
these,  having  been  frankly  stated,  may  for  the  moment  be  neg- 
lected. The  religious  practices  and  ideas  of  the  people  at  large 
are  for  the  most  part  crude  enough ;  here  again  we  are  justified 
in  turning  away  for  the  moment  from  the  majority  to  the  few  in 
whom  religion  found  its  higher  expression.  Though  these  few 
persons  are  not  a  fair  test  by  which  to  judge  the  meaning  of 
Greek  religion,  nevertheless  it  is  most  unfair  in  art  or  literature, 
in  politics  or  ethics  or  religion,  not  to  consider  the  highest  results 
attained.  In  this  section  I  shall  attempt  to  state  these  higher 
religious  conceptions  which  occasionally  appeared  in  Greece, 
both  in  their  relation  to  later  religious  thought  and  in  their  rela- 
tion to  those  general  views  of  the  Greek  people  out  of  which  they 
developed. 

In  the  first  place  it  may  be  pointed  out  that  the  fundamental 
idea  in  Greek  religion  is  that  man's  ability  and  activity  are  limited 
by  a  superior  power  akin  to  himself  in  its  nature,  and  inter- 
ested in  his  welfare.  This  controlling  power  in  the  world  is  not 

334 


DISTINCTIVE   NATURE  OF  GREEK   RELIGION     335 

fully  represented  by  any  particular  god ;  rather  it  is  a  divine  pres- 
ence which  is  manifested  now  in  one  god,  now  in  the  community 
of  the  gods.  No  doubt  this  divine  being  was  suggested  by 
nature,  for  the  physical  universe  was  a  limitation  to  man's  activity, 
one  complex  power  enveloping  him.  From  Homer  on,  the  gods 
in  general  (or  some  particular  god)  are  represented  as  freely  in- 
terfering to  change  the  course  of  events  in  nature ; l  nor  does  this 
impress  men  as  so  very  wonderful,  since  nature  is  part  of  that 
human  environment  in  which  the  divine  is  manifested.  And  the 
divine  had  the  same  unity  which  was  attributed  to  nature.  At  the 
same  time  this  divine  being  was  no  doubt  suggested  also  by  the  con- 
sideration of  human  experience  and  conduct.  Again  beginning 
with  Homer  we  find  that  the  poet's  conception  of  society  is  frankly 
based  on  the  idea  of  one  governing  power  which  sanctions  right 
and  law.  The  action  of  the  Homeric  poems  rests  on  the  belief 
that  Troy  must  fall  because  Paris  had  abused  the  hospitality  of 
Menelaus,  and  in  the  Odyssey  that  the  insolence  of  Penelope's 
suitors  is  to  bring  destruction  on  their  heads.  The  same  belief 
in  the  moral  government  of  the  world  is  the  keynote  of  much  of 
the  later  literature.2  Man's  social  environment  is  conceived  as  a 
(moral)  divine  government,  just  as  his  natural  environment  is  the 
manifestation  of  a  divine  power  about  him  and  above  him. 

It  appears  then  that  the  background  of  Greek  philosophy  of  life 
is  a  divine  power  which  makes  for  righteousness,  a  power  not 
fully  expressed  in  any  of  the  gods  of  myth  or  the  gods  of  wor- 
ship, though  it  is  not  infrequently  called  by  the  name  "  Zeus." 8 
From  this  point  of  view  alone  can  be  explained  the  general  use 
of  the  words  0eos  and  0eot  from  Homer  on.  Affairs  prosper  when 
"god"  or  "the  gods"  favor4;  "god"  or  "the  gods"  give  men 
prowess  in  battle,  beauty,  or  eloquence,  and  again  it  is  "  god  "  or 

1  The  evidence  for  Homer  is  collected  by  Naegelsbach,  Homer ische   Theologie, 
49  f. 

2  Cp.  supra,  p.  256;  Naegelsbach,  Homerische  Theologie,  317  f.;  L.  Schmidt, 
Ethik  der  alten  Griechen,  i.  47  f. ;  Tyler,   Theology  of  the  Greek  Poets,  226  f. 

8  L.  Schmidt,  ibid.  i.  48-50. 

4  Iliad,  9.  49 ;  24.  430 ;  cp.  Sophocles,  Ajax,  765. 


336  GREEK  RELIGION 

Zeus  to  whom  a  particular  event  is  referred.1  The  phrases  TO  Otiov 
and  Oeta  rvxy  do  not  occur  in  Homer ;  in  Aeschylus  and  Herodo- 
tus and  later  writers  they  are  used  as  an  alternative  to  the  word 
0eos,  to  refer  to  much  the  same  thing.2  In  a  word,  all  through 
Greek  literature  the  divine  power  back  of  human  life  and  the 
physical  universe  is  recognized,  whether  it  is  called  Zeus  or  God 
or  the  Divine. 

Perhaps  it  is  not  strange  that  this  state  of  the  case  has  given 
rise  to  the  theory  of  Welcker  (and  others  before  him)  that  Greek 
religion  started  with  monotheism.  The  exclusive  recognition  of 
one  god  at  a  time  in  worship 'has  tended  to  strengthen  the  theory. 
At  the  same  time  it  is  quite  clear  that  the  belief  in  one  divine 
power  is  by  no  means  primitive  in  Greece  ;  rather,  the  conscious- 
ness of  it  gradually  developed  along  with  the  social  consciousness 
(or  sense  of  social  ui.ity)  among  the  people.  Philosophic  thought 
pursued  the  same  course  in  the  direction  of  a  theology  that  was 
monotheistic;3  but  for  the  public  at  large  this  divine  power 
found  its  expression  in  and  through  the  particular  gods  of  wor- 
ship. 

From  a  modern  point  of  view  there  is  some  truth  in  Schmidt's 
statement  that  the  Greeks  made  no  such  antithesis  as  we  make 
between  the  One  and  the  Many  in  the  divine  world.4  As  it  was 
the  group  of  worshippers  rather  than  the  individual  who  sought 
communion  with  a  god  in  worship,  so  it  was  easy  to  think  of  the 
divine  now  as  manifested  in  a  group  of  gods,  now  in  a  particular 
god.  The  unity  of  the  divine  became  finally  a  necessity  of  human 
thought,  but  it  was  far  more  natural  for  the  Greeks  than  it  would 
be  for  us  to  conceive  the  divine  unity  as  manifested  in  a  series  of 
gods.  After  these  gods  and  their  worship  have  been  studied,  it  is 
fair  to  note  how  clearly  the  Greeks  recognized  that  the  "  horizon 
of  human  consciousness  "  was  one  divine  power. 

1  Iliad,  13.  730;  3.  66;    Odyssey,  14.  444  and  183;  8.  176;  3.  228  and  231. 

2  Herodotus,    i.  32:  3.  108;   4.  8;  Aeschylus,  Choeph,  958;    Sophocles,  PhiL 
1326;  etc. 

8  Zeller,  Vortr'dge  und  Abhandlungen,  i.  i  f. 
4  I*.  Schmidt,  Ethik  der  alten  Griechen,  i.  60. 


DISTINCTIVE   NATURE.  OF  GREEK  RELIGION     337 

2.  The  Nature  of  a  God  in  Greece.  —  The  fact  that  this  "  divine," 
the  ruling  power  in  the  world,  is  centred  or  focussed  in  individual 
gods  —  personal  gods  recognized  as  such  before  the  consciousness 
of  any  unity  was  clear — has  led  to  those  characteristics  of  Greek 
religion  which  are  at  first  sight  most  striking.  Because  the  per- 
sonality of  the  gods  was  so  like  the  personality  of  man,  the  gods 
could  only  be  conceived  as  in  the  world,  not  apart  from  it.  That 
same  power  over  his  environment  which  man  might  exercise  was 
present  to  far  larger  degree  in  the  gods ;  and  while  nothing  in  the 
world  was  outside  the  divine,  the  gods  were  necessarily  limited  by 
the  very  fact  that  they  were  many  and  were  persons.  As  persons 
in  the  world  they  possessed  that  reality  for  man  and  that  sympathy 
with  him  which  were  so  distinctly  felt  in  Greece. 

It  has  already  been  pointed  out  that  the  Greek  gods  reflect 
every  phase  of  human  life.  Not  only  the  forms  of  worship,  but 
also  the  conceptions  of  the  gods  themselves  vary  with  prosperity 
and  with  adversity.  With  each  considerable  change  in  the  com- 
munity the  nature  of  the  gods  is  modified.  And  in  particular 
whatever  is  human  is  for  that  reason  represented  in  one  or  an- 
other of  these  superhuman  members  of  human  society.  That  the 
gods  so  constantly  are  acting  with  reference  to  man  seems  at  first 
a  childish  conception  ;  childish  or  not,  this  view  is  inevitable  for 
gods  which  owe  their  existence  to  the  social  demands  of  their 
worshippers. 

The  most  notable  result  of  this  process  is  the  moral  character 
assigned  to  the  gods.  Their  position  in  society  is  that  of  rulers, 
rulers  who  should  be  wise,  just,  and  merciful  in  dealing  with  their 
subjects,  whatever  license  be  granted  to  individual  faults  or  vices. 
It  appears  that  the  idea  of  divine  justice  arose  both  in  connection 
with  the  abstract  conception  of  one  divine  power  at  work  in  the 
world,  and  also  in  connection  with  the  separate  personality  of  gods 
who  were  rulers.  The  thought  of  gods  who  watched  over  the  wel- 
fare of  their  worshippers,  on  the  other  hand,  belongs  primarily 
with  the  conception  of  the  'gods  as  personal  rulers.  In  the  case 
of  Zeus,  father  of  gods  and  men,  one  may  almost  speak  of  divine 

GREEK   RELIGION  —  22 


338  GREEK   RELIGION 

love  for  men l ;  perhaps,  also,  a  patron  deity  of  the  state  may  be 
described  as  having  a  sort  of  affection  for  that  state  and  its  citizens. 
Divine  wisdom  and  justice,  mercy  and  beneficence,  were  not  for- 
eign to  Greek  thought ;  the  other  attribute  which  we  assign  to  the 
Deity,  the  attribute  of  holiness,  was  not  generally  recognized, 
though  later  Greek  thought  did  not  hesitate  to  find  its  moral 
ideals  impersonated  in  the  gods.  The  essential  fact  about  these 
gods,  however,  is  that  they  were  very  near  to  man,  gods  that  arose 
in  response  to  human  need  and  that  met  man's  sense  of  need  so 
completely. 

The  account  of  the  forms  of  worship  (Part  I,  Chap,  ii)  has,  I 
believe,  confirmed  the  statement  in  the  introduction  (p.  32  f.)  that 
Greek  worship  is  primarily  a  social  matter,  the  effort  of  the  wor- 
shipper to  establish  social  relations  with  his  god.  The  homage 
paid  to  divine  rulers  may  be  in  the  form  of  tribute,  of  processions 
and  pageants,  of  banquets  shared  by  gods  and  worshippers  ;  what- 
ever its  form  it  is  essentially  homage,  intended  to  express  the 
grateful  submission  of  the  subject  to  his  ruler,  and  more  especially 
the  desire  of  the  subject  for  such  blessings  as  come  from  a  sym- 
pathetic and  beneficent  ruler.  The  general  object  of  worship 
was  to  secure  this  social  connection  between  the  community  of 
worshippers  and  their  patron  god. 

The  above  statement  leaves  out  rites  of  riddance  or  aversion, 
mystic  rites,  and  perhaps  rites  to  pacify  angry  deities.  This  last 
type  of  worship  is  not  inconsistent  with  the  idea  of  kindly  rulers, 
for  any  ruler  may  be  stirred  to  anger  by  his  subjects  and  some 
special  effort  may  be  necessary  to  restore  his  spirit  of  friendliness. 
It  has  further  been  pointed  out  that  some  gods,  notably  agri- 
cultural deities,  are  by  nature  fickle,  so  that  special  rites  are 
practised  from  time  to  time  to  remove  possible  causes  of  anger. 
The  purpose  of  these  rites  is  not  essentially  different  from  that  of 
other  rites  to  cultivate  the  social  connection  of  god  and  wor- 
shipper. 

Inasmuch  as  the  gods  are  essentially  good,  it  is  necessary  to 

1  Schoemann,  Griech.  Alt.  2. 148  f. 


DISTINCTIVE  NATURE  OF  GREEK  RELIGION     339 

seek  elsewhere  the  causes  of  mischief  and  evil,  except  when  they 
can  be  interpreted  as  due  to  just  anger  of  the  gods.  Such  spirits 
of  evil  occupy  a  remarkably  small  place  in  Greek  religion,  but 
their  presence  is  attested  by  rites  of  aversion.  The  rather  sharp 
line  between  these  rites  and  worship  proper  reduces  this  phase  of 
belief  almost  to  the  level  of  pure  superstition.  Men  sought  social 
relations  with  the  greater  gods  as  the  true  source  of  blessing  and 
of  escape  from  evil ;  in  disaster  they  sought  to  mollify  the  anger 
of  the  gods  and  to  remove  the  causes  of  that  anger;  that  they 
also  tried  to  drive  away  spirits  of  evil  means  that  they  had  not 
escaped  entirely  from  this  more  primitive  conception  of  life. 

The  conception  of  the  gods  as  personal  rulers,  far-reaching  as 
it  is,  does  not  cover  the  whole  matter,  for  an  undercurrent  of 
mysticism  here  and  there  comes  to  the  surface  with  a  strikingly 
different  account  of  them.  Nor  is  religious  worship  entirely  con- 
fined to  rites  that  can  be  explained  as  social.  The  sharp  limits 
of  personality  which  define  a  god  may  be  broken  down ;  some 
divine  influence  may  be  felt  as  existing  in  the  blood  of  a  sacrificial 
victim  or  in  the  juice  of  the  grape ;  man  himself  may  be  pos- 
sessed by  the  divine  presence,  till  he  loses  himself  in  the  larger 
nature  of  the  god.  This  merging  of  god  and  nature  or  of  god  and 
man  belongs  to  the  sphere  of  mysticism. 

The  mystic  element  has  already  been  pointed  out  in  the  study 
of  oracles  and  divination.  Knowledge  of  the  future  may  be  gained 
through  signs  and  dreams ;  it  may  also  be  gained  through  seers 
who  have  such  intimate  connection  with  the  god  that  they  speak 
for  the  god,  not  for  themselves  —  seers  like  the  Pythian  priestess 
or  the  Sibyl.  Imitative  worship,  such  as  the  drama  of  the  slaying 
of  the  Python  at  Delphi,  probably  had  some  mystic  meaning 
originally,  however  it  was  understood  later.  The  ecstatic  wor- 
ship of  Dionysus  was  frankly  accepted  as  irrational  and  mystical. 
The  purpose  of  music  and  dance  and  wild  rites  in  the  forest  was 
to  create  in  actual  human  experience  the  sense  of  union  with  the 
divine.  Religion  thus  became  the  means  of  breaking  the  bonds 
which  held  the  soul  of  man  apart  from  God,  in  order  that  it  might 


340  GREEK    RELIGION 

find  its  true  home  in  the  divine  being.  Such  a  belief  is  in  sharp 
contrast  to  the  ordinary  Greek  view  of  life.  It  was  never  wide- 
spread or  controlling;  that  it  existed  at  allalong  with  the.  pre- 
eminently rational  account  of  human  life  in  relation  to  the  world 
and  to  the  gods  is  noteworthy  proof  of  the  Greek  breadth  of  view 
in  religious  matters. 

3.  Sin  and  the  Remedy  for  Sin.  —  Much  of  Christian  theology 
has  centred  about  the  two  related  conceptions  of  sin  and  its 
remedy;  Semitic  religion,  also,  laid  stress  on  rites  of  expiation 
and  atonement ;  while  these  ideas  and  the  rites  associated  with 
them  necessarily  formed  a  part  of  Greek  religion,  they  remained 
ordinarily  in  the  background.  The  clearness  of  moral  vision  which 
could  not  overlook  punishment  as  the  result  of  trangression  is  in 
part  responsible  for  this  result  in  Greece.  Perhaps  the  almost 
rationalistic  interpretation  of  the  gods  as  like  human  rulers  checked 
the  moral  demand  for  gods  that  were  pure  and  holy,  together  with 
the  requirement  that  man  should  aim  at  a  similar  ideal.  From  the 
Greek  point  of  view  the  facts  are  distinct  enough  :  trangression  of 
moral  law  calls  for  punishment  by  divine  rulers,  and  consequently 
it  may  be  regarded  as  "  sin  " ;  what  is  most  evidently  sin  against 
the  gods  is  that  neglect  or  presumption  which  develops  out  of 
undue  self-reliance  ;  finally  the  thought  of  sin  as  pollution  which 
must  be  purified  in  order  to  restore  a  right  relation  between  god 
and  worshipper  is  common  in  ritual.  These  three  points  of  view 
are  not  clearly  distinguished,  nor  is  the  religious  conception  of  sin 
(and  its  remedy)  ever  sharply  defined. 

The  Greek  "  theodicy  "  is  absolutely  simple.  Sin  is  known  by 
the  suffering  and  misfortune  which  follows  in  its  train.  A  man 
may  suffer  for  his  own  sins ;  quite  as  often  the  community  suffers 
because  some  member  of  it  has  provoked  the  anger  of  the  gods, 
or  the  family  suffers  because  it  is  under  the  curse  of  an  ancestral 
sin.  Of  this  last  point  the  family  of  Oedipus  or  of  Atreus  may 
serve  as  a  mythical  type.  The  army  of  the  Greeks,  as  a  com- 
munity, suffers  from  a  plague  when  Agamemnon  has  reviled  the 
priest  Chryses,  and  Troy  at  length  must  fall  because  Paris  has 


DISTINCTIVE  NATURE  OF  GREEK  RELIGION   341 

violated  the  hospitality  of  Menelaus.1  The  presumption  of  an 
individual  like  Creon  or  Pentheus  brings  swift  punishment.2  In 
these  matters  myth  is  but  the  prototype  for  the  Greek  interpretation 
of  daily  experience. 

The  causes  of  sin  are  not  infrequently  mentioned  in  Greek 
literature.3  Humanity  is  frail  and  ever  liable  to  err.4  Though 
error  and  sin,  like  all  else  in  human  life,  is  not  infrequently  re- 
ferred to  the  gods,5  the  real  cause  of  sin  is  found  in  the  nature  of 
man.  At6,  the  blind  folly  which  leads  man  on  from  sin  to  sin  and 
to  ultimate  disaster,  is  one  of  the  most  striking  moral  conceptions 
in  the  Homeric  poems.6  Although  this  word  shifts  its  meaning 
later,  the  conception  that  sin  begets  sin,  that  sin  is  the  cause  of 
intellectual  blindness  and  perversion  of  the  will  which  end  in  dis- 
aster, is  still  fundamental  in  Greek  thought.7  Laius  disregarded 
Apollo's  warning  not  to  marry ;  his  son  Oedipus,  with  all  his  high 
and  pure  ideals,  in  anger  killed  a  man  who  proved  to  be  his  father, 
and  unwittingly  married  his  mother ;  to  the  sons  and  daughters 
of  this  marriage  came  sin  and  suffering  till  the  race  was  extinct. 
Such  was  one  typical  example  of  sin  as  the  cause  of  sin. 

The  original  sin  of  Laius  was  the  disregard  of  Apollo,  caused 
by  his  desire  for  marriage.  Not  only  passion,  but  also  other  im- 
pulses of  human  nature,  like  envy  and  the  love  of  gain,  lead  men 
astray.8  The  Greeks  summed  up  the  whole  matter  in  the  concep- 
tion of  v/?pis,  or  presumption,  which  may  be  stated  as  follows : 
Prosperity  leads  to  an  undue  self-confidence  which  forgets  modera- 
tion or  even  divine  warning  in  carrying  out  its  own  plans.9  Blind 


1  Herodotus,  2.  120.  2  Odyssey,  4.  502;  Sophocles,  Ant.  passim. 

8  Schmidt,  Rthlk  der  alien  Griechen,  i.  230. 

4  Sophocles,  Ant.  1023;  Thucydides,  3.  45.  3;  Pindar,  Olym.  7.  24-25. 

6  Iliad,  4.  86  f.;  Odyssey,  4.  261 ;  Plato,  Politia,  2,  p.  380  A,  and  quotation  from 
Aeschylus. 

6  Iliad,  19.  91  f.;   Odyssey,  i.  32.  7  Cp.  Sophocles,  Ant.  1242. 

»  Schmidt,  Ethik  der  alien  Griechen,  I.  255;  cp.  Plato,  Politia,  4,  p.  439  A,  t; 
Pindar,  Pyth.  3.  54. 

9  E.g.  Odyssey,  16.  86,  et passim;  Aeschylus,  Agam.  750 f.;  Sophocles,  Oed.  Tjfr. 
872  f.;  Pindar,  Olym.  13.  10  f.;  Isthm.  4.  13-15;  cp.  Deuteronomy  6.  10  f. 


342  GREEK   RELIGION 

folly  (At£)  is  the  result  of  presumption ;  sin  leads  to  sin  because 
it  makes  man  presumptuous  ;  any  wrong-doing  is  really  sin  against 
the  gods  because  it  means  a  presumptuous  disregard  of  divine  law. 

The  remedy  for  sin,  in  so  far  as  any  remedy  is  possible,  depends 
on  the  nature  of  sin.  When  it  is  transgression  of  law,  law  which 
is  divinely  appointed,1  nothing  can  be  done  to  avert  the  inevitable 
penalty.  That  Aegisthus  can  atone  for  his  sin  in  marrying  Cly- 
taemnestra  by  means  of  sacrifice  and  votive  offerings,  or  that  the 
followers  of  Odysseus  can  allay  Helios's  anger  by  similar  means 
when  they  have  disregarded  the  warning  not  to  slay  his  cattle, 
are  suggestions  condemned  by  Homer  as  clearly  as  by  Plato.2 
Ultimate  escape  is  hardly  won  by  Orestes,  even  though  it  was 
Apollo  himself  who  bade  him  slay  the  guilty  Clytaemnestra.3  All 
that  can  be  done  by  way  of  remedy  is  concerned,  not  with  avoid- 
ance of  the  direct  penalty  for  transgression,  but  with  the  spirit 
of  presumption  which  is  so  intimately  associated  with  the  act  of 
wrong-doing. 

Again,  in  so  far  as  sin  is  the  expression  of  a  wrong  spirit  on  the 
part  of  the  sinner,  it  may  be  remedied  (a)  by  making  amends,  if 
possible,  and  (£)  by  seeking  to  gain  anew  the  favor  of  the  gods  in 
worship.  The  religious  side  of  the  matter  is  the  disregard  of  the 
gods,  which  the  Greeks  also  traced  to  presumption  (u/fyts)  and 
which  of  course  provoked  the  anger  of  the  gods ;  the  remedy, 
therefore,  consists  in  giving  evidence  of  a  desire  to  honor  the  rule 
of  the  gods  and  in  a  direct  effort  to  allay  their  anger.  In  the 
language  of  Herodotus  and  Sophocles  the  sin  is  "  healed."  * 

The  Homeric  poems  give  examples  of  sins  that  can  be  "  healed," 
and  of  sins  too  grave  for  healing  :  the  affront  of  Ajax  to  Poseidon 
and  that  of  the  Greek  hosts  to  Athena  are  beyond  cure  ;  the  anger 
of  gods  for  failure  to  make  sacrifice  may  be  appeased ;  even 
Agamemnon's  harsh  treatment  of  Apollo's  priest  may  be  set  right 

1  Sophocles,  Ant.  604  f.;    Oed.   Tyr.  865  f.;    "The  doer  suffers,"  Aeschylus, 
Choeph.  306;  Xenophon,  Mem.  4.  4.  19. 

2  Odyssey,  3.  273  f. ;   12.  343  f. ;   Plato,  Politia,  2,  p.  364  B,  f. 
8  Aeschylus,  Oresteia. 

*  Herodotus,  z.  167 ;  Sophocles,  Ant.  1027 ;  cp.  Pindar,  Olym.  7. 43. 


DISTINCTIVE   NATURE   OF  GREEK  RELIGION     343 

by  making  amends  and  by  sacrifice.1  It  was  an  insult  to  Apollo 
when  Croesus  tested  the  truthfulness  of  the  Delphic  oracle,  but 
the  gifts  of  Croesus  were  accepted  by  the  god  as  an  atonement.8 
More  than  once  a  plague  was  regarded  as  evidence  of  divine 
anger  at  neglected  worship,  anger  which  was  allayed  by  reviving 
the  worship.3  It  has  been  noted  that  such  an  affront  to  the  gods 
as  the  mutilation  of  the  hermae  at  Athens,  although  it  was  an  act 
of  individuals,  brought  the  anger  of  the  gods  on  the  state ;  ac- 
cordingly it  was  the  function  of  the  state  to  punish  the  individuals 
concerned  and  to  seek  to  propitiate  the  gods.  Any  form  of 
worship  might  serve  this  purpose  in  that  it  was  proof  of  man's 
desire  to  restore  normal  relations  with  the  gods. 

A  slightly  different  side  of  the  matter  appears  especially  in  the 
tragedians,  namely,  the  doctrine  that  suffering  itself  may  some- 
times serve  as  a  sort  of  expiation  for  sin.  Anything  like  self- 
imposed  penance  is  absolutely  foreign  to  Greek  religion.  But 
that  suffering  may  teach  a  better  spirit,4  and  that  the  natural 
punishment  may  "  loose  "  the  power  of  sin,  are  ideas  familiar  to 
Greek  thought.  As  the  death  of  a  murderer  "  looses  "  the  influ- 
ence of  his  deed  for  evil,5  so  suffering  may  in  the  end  overcome 
the  effect  of  a  lesser  crime.  Perhaps  the  Oedipus  of  Sophocles 
may  be  regarded  as  an  illustration  of  this  form  of  expiation  —  in 
the  Oedipus  Tyrannus  a  king  self-willed,  quick  to  anger,  and 
relying  on  his  own  powers ;  in  the  Oedipus  Coloneus,  after  years 
of  suffering  for  his  unwitting  sin,  a  man  chastened  and  brought 
into  harmony  with  the  will  of  the  gods. 

From  a  third  point  of  view  sin  is  a  form  of  pollution,  and  its 
remedy  is  found  in  rites  of  purification.  Pollution  and  purifica- 
tion do  not  necessarily  have  anything  to  do  with  sin ; 6  probably 
the  conception  of  a  dangerous  substance  which  must  be  purged 

1  Odyssey,  4.  503 ;  3.  143  f. ;  4. 472 ;  Iliad,  9.  533  f. ;  1. 94  f. ;  cp.  9.  497  f. 

2  Xenophon,  Cyrop.  7.  2.  19.  8  Pausanias,  8.  42.  5  f. 

*  irdffei  /idflos,  Aeschylus,  Agam.  177 ;  cp.  Herodotus,  1. 207 ;  Plato,  Symf.  222  B. 
6  Sophocles,  Oed.  Tyr.  100;  Aeschylus,  Choeph.  803  f. 
'  Cp.  supra,  p.  no  L 


344  GREEK   RELIGION 

away  belongs  originally  to  quite  a  different  range  of  ideas ;  but 
moral  evil  also  comes  to  be  regarded  as  pollution,  and  purifica- 
tion is  thought  to  give  relief  from  an  evil  which  separates  god  and 
worshipper.  In  the  first  book  of  the  Iliad  (i.  313  f.)  the  plague, 
which  manifested  the  divine  anger  at  Agamemnon's  sin,  made  puri- 
fication necessary ;  similarly,  the  house  of  Odysseus  was  purified 
after  the  crime  and  punishment  of  the  suitors.1  Any  death  caused 
an  impurity,  but  murder  caused  an  impurity  and  a  consequent 
anger  which  were  not  easily  removed.2  When  the  followers  of 
Cylon  were  slain  in  violation  of  the  rights  of  sanctuary,  those  who 
committed  the  outrage  were  banished,  and  then  elaborate  rites  of 
purification  were  necessary  before  the  city  could  expect  again  the 
favor  of  its  gods.3  Certain  cults  laid  more  emphasis  than  others 
on  the  need  of  purification.  There  is  some  evidence  that  the 
ritual  purity  demanded,  e.g.  in  the  Eleusinian  mysteries,  was  at 
times  carried  over  into  the  ethical  field4;  in  other  words  that  in 
these  rites  men  sought  relief  from  the  feeling  of  guilt  for  sin.  In 
any  case  it  is  clear  (a)  that  pollution  was  not  primarily  a  moral 
matter  that  could  be  called  sin,  but  (£)  that  at  least  some  kinds 
of  sin  came  to  be  regarded  as  a  pollution  demanding  rites  of 
purification. 

In  general  the  Greek  conception  of  sin  differs  radically  from 
the  Christian  conception,  because  Greek  religion  laid  compara- 
tively little  stress  on  holiness  and  on  the  idea  of  divine  love. 
Wrongdoing  is  sin  against  the  divine  power  which  governs  the 
world  righteously ;  it  is  not  a  rejection  of  the  loving  care  of  the 
gods,  nor  a  lapse  from  that  ideal  of  life  which  the  gods  exemplify. 
The  three  points  of  view  considered  are  more  marked,  one  at  one 
time,  one  at  another.  It  is  noticeable  that,  while  each  concep- 
tion is  worked  out  logically,  the  three  are  not  brought  together 
with  any  definiteness  or  unity. 

1  Odyssey,  22.  481,  494.  2  Sophocles,  Oed.  Tyr.  96,  236,  1519. 

8  Thucydides,  i.  126;  Herodotus,  6.  91. 

4  E.g.  Tertullian,  De  praescript.  40;  Diodorus  Siculus,  5.  49.  6;  cp.  schol.  on 
Aristophanes,  Pax,  278 ;  Plato,  Politia,  2,  p.  364  E. 


DISTINCTIVE   NATURE  OF  GREEK  RELIGION     345 

4.  The  Conception  of  the  Religious  Life.  —  In  Christianity  the 
ideals  of  the  religious  life  and  the  conception  of  its  nature  have 
assumed  various  forms  during  nineteen  centuries.  The  faith  in  a 
controlling  divine  presence  has  not  failed,  nor  has  the  sense  of 
divine  love  ever  been  lacking ;  on  the  other  hand  the  goal  to  be 
attained,  "  salvation  "  in  Christian  terminology,  has  received  inter- 
pretations as  various  as  the  means  by  which  this  goal  has  been 
sought.  At  one  time  salvation  has  been  interpreted  as  the  holiness 
to  be  acquired  through  escape  from  sin ;  the  means  have  been 
penance  and  avoidance  of  contact  with  the  world ;  the  motive 
has  often  seemed  to  be  selfish,  though  the  effort  to  become  good 
had  little  meaning  except  as  this  goodness  was  thought  to  be 
pleasing  to  God.  At  other  times  the  motive  has  seemed  to  be  a 
social  one  in  that  religious  men  have  aimed  to  do  good  rather 
than  to  be  good  ;  the  means  has  been  the  service  of  others  in  the 
community;  "salvation"  has  been  recognized  in  the  freedom 
from  selfish  purpose  or  desire  thus  attained.  Between  these  two 
poles  has  oscillated  the  conception  of  the  religious  life. 

Probably  the  ancient  Greek  would  have  understood  the  impulse 
to  do  good  as  little  as  the  impulse  to  be  good,  yet  we  find  in 
Greece  the  germs  of  both  points  of  view.  The  general  ideal  of 
social  service  appears  in  a  very  concrete  form  as  the  demand  that 
the  citizen  perform  his  part  in  the  state  and  the  community,  while 
the  requirements  of  morality,  as  has  been  pointed  out  above,1 
were  never  wholly  divorced  from  religion.  Negatively  in  Greece 
the  religious  life  meant  to  avoid  impiety  (acre/3eui) .  Acts  of 
impiety  were  of  course  punished  by  the  state  through  the  special 
court  where  such  cases  were  tried.  Still  the  requirement  was 
purely  external,  for  public  worship  was  never  compulsory  and  a 
man  was  never  questioned  as  to  his  belief.  For  the  individual 
to  avoid  impiety  meant  simply  to  avoid  acting  in  defiance  of  the 
practices  of  established  religion. 

The  external  mark  of  piety  was  regularity  and  punctiliousness 
in  the  performance  of  religious  rites.  In  the  Homeric  poems 

^•307. 


346  GREEK  RELIGION 

every  meal  was  marked  by  sacrifice  and  libation  ;  in  later  days  at 
Athens  the  same  principle  probably  obtained,  though  there  was 
room  for  very  great  difference  between  what  custom  required  and 
what  a  pious  man  might  do  if  he  chose.  In  the  spirit  of  piety 
portrayed,  the  account  of  Cephalus  in  Plato  corresponds  closely 
to  that  of  Peleus  in  the  Iliad.'1  As  for  the  public  festivals,  the 
religious  man  doubtless  felt  it  his  duty  to  join  the  community  in 
worship,  while  many  must  have  come  from  other  than  religious 
motives.  Moreover,  there  were  extra  religious  rites  outside  the 
state  worship  which  appealed  to  a  considerable  number.  It  was 
no  more  fair  then  than  it  is  now  to  define  the  pious  man  as  one 
who  was  scrupulous  about  sacrificing  regularly  to  the  gods,2  but 
then  as  now  it  was  the  outward  mark  of  piety. 

Plato  makes  Euthyphro 3  give  as  one  definition  of  piety  that  it 
is  "  doing  what  pleases  the  gods,"  a  definition  that  proves  unsat- 
isfactory because  what  pleases  the  gods  has  in  turn  to  be  defined 
as  piety.  In  fact  experience  was  the  test  which  led  the  Greeks 
to  think  that  religious  observances  pleased  the  gods  and  therefore 
were  the  true  expression  of  piety.  The  conception  of  piety  which 
is  involved  in  the  requirement  to  join  the  community  in  worship 
is  perhaps  broader  than  appears  at  first  sight.  The  state  worship 
was  maintained  on  the  ground  that  the  gods  cared  for  the  honor 
and  success  of  the  state  ;  whatever  contributed  to  this  end  would 
therefore  be  gratifying  to  the  gods  and  an  element  in  piety.  In 
other  words  all  that  society  demanded  of  a  man,  all  that  was  right 
and  good  in  life,  would  receive  indirectly  the  sanction  of  religion 
because  the  welfare  of  the  state  was  an  object  of  concern  to  the 
gods. 

Although  one  finds  in  Greece  no  conscious  demand  that  the 
pious  man  be  like  the  gods,  nevertheless  as  the  gods  were  de- 
veloped into  harmony  with  the  higher  ideals  of  human  life,  these 
ideals  at  length  were  reen forced  by  the  influence  of  the  gods.  We 

1  Plato,  Politia,  i,  p.  328  C ;  Iliad,  n.  773  f. 

2  Plato,  Euthyphro,  14  B;  cp.  Xenophon,  Mem.  4.  6.  2  f. 
*  Euthyphro,  7  A. 


DISTINCTIVE   NATURE   OF  GREEK  RELIGION     347 

have  seen  that  art  and  literature  did  much  to  shape  the  thought 
of  the  gods  in  this  direction ;  the  very  recognition  that  in  a  paint- 
ing or  a  tragedy  the  gods  did  represent  true  human  ideals  could 
but  lead,  even  though  unconsciously,  to  an  effort  to  become  like 
the  gods.  To  Plato  this  point  was  very  clear.  The  demand  that 
in  his  ideal  state  the  gods  be  pictured  as  true,  unchanging,  not 
subject  to  weak  emotion,  etc.,  was  based  on  the  fact  that  the  reli- 
gious man  could  not  avoid  the  effort  to  be  like  the  gods.  For  the 
same  reason  the  statue  of  Apollo,  type  of  perfect  young  man- 
hood, belonged  in  the  palaestra,  the  statue  of  Hephaestus  in  the 
workshop,  the  statue  of  Hermes  in  the  market-place.  So  Pindar 
describes  the  peaceful  serenity  of  Apollo,  which  those  who  wor- 
ship Apollo  may  acquire.1  The  poetic  picture  of  the  gods,  as 
Plato  points  out,  is  so  non-religious  that  its  influence  in  this  direc- 
tion was  quite  different  from  that  of  art. 

The  sense  of  need  which  underlies  the  religious  life  had  in 
Greece  less  to  do  with  freedom  from  evil  than  with  positive  bene- 
fits that  were  desired.  Homer's  phrase  "all  men  need  the  gods  "2 
seems  to  mean  that  men  need  those  blessings  which  come  from 
beneficent  divine  rulers.  Other  nations  might  be  oppressed  with 
the  evils  of  life  ;  religion  for  them  might  be  a  grievous  task  to 
secure  freedom  from  this  burden ;  kindly  gods  and  a  joyous  wor- 
ship were  the  birthright  of  the  Greeks.  To  sin  against  these  gods 
brought  terrible  penalties  indeed  ;  on  the  other  hand  sin  and  evil 
were  not  ever  present  facts,  nor  was  self-imposed  penance  the 
method  of  securing  relief  when  they  were  present.  There  were 
rites  to  deal  with  circumstances  where  special  help  was  needed  — 
help  in  sickness,  knowledge  of  the  future,  help  in  time  of  drought 
or  mildew  for  the  crops.  At  the  same  time  the  point  of  view  was 
that  the  gods  were  by  nature  ready  to  bless  ;  not  gods  who  yielded 
grudgingly  to  the  pressure  of  powerful  rites  such  as  Rome  used  in 
time  of  great  trouble.  Not  until  the  Hellenistic  age  did  religion 
become  the  effort  to  obtain  salvation  from  evil. 

The  sense  of  human  dependence  on  the  gods  was  in  no  degree 
l  Pindar,  Pyth,  5.  2  Odyssey,  3. 48. 


348  GREEK  RELIGION 

weakened  because  sin  and  evil  did  not  continually  drive  men  to 
seek  divine  help.  This  dependence  appears  first  in  the  form  of 
obedience  —  Achilles  obeys  the  gods,  eager  as  he  is  to  maintain  his 
honor  against  Agamemnon,  or  to  gratify  his  vengeance  by  keeping 
Hector's  body  from  his  parents;  and  the  spirit  of  Achilles  pre- 
vailed among  the  later  Greeks.1  To  be  sure  the  motive  was 
frankly  fear  of  divine  punishment  to  him  who  disobeyed.2  Yet 
fear  of  the  gods  often  took  the  form  of  reverence  when  the  justice 
of  the  divine  rule  was  so  clearly  recognized.3 

Again  the  sense  of  dependence  appeared  as  trustful  confidence 
in  the  gods.  When  Agamemnon  or  Menelaus  or  Achilles  prayed 
to  the  gods,4  it  was  with  confidence  in  their  favor  and  blessing,  for 
the  Greeks  had  come  to  Troy  with  divine  favor  (<rw  Oew).  The 
Greek  general  waited  for  favorable  omens  that  his  army  might 
obtain  this  confidence.  Whoever  was  convinced  that  his  cause 
was  right,  believed  that  the  power  of  the  gods  was  with  him,  for 
no  one  doubted  the  justice  of  the  gods.5  In  fact  this  attitude  of 
trustful  confidence  was  the  only  natural  outcome  of  the  concep- 
tion that  the  gods  were  bound  up  with  the  state  in  one  social 
group.  That  it  must  have  often  met  with  disappointment  was 
easily  explained  on  the  ground  that  men  had  in  some  way  failed 
to  do  their  part. 

And  when  evil  did  come,  the  sense  of  dependence  on  the  gods 
appeared  as  resignation.  Though  it  is  the  will  of  Zeus  that 
many  Greeks  perish,  they  still  go  to  the  sacrificial  meal  and  pre- 
pare for  the  battle.6  The  counsels  of  the  gods  were  often  inexpli- 
cable ;  none  the  less  what  the  gods  sent  must  be  accepted,  for 
man  had  no  choice  in  the  matter.  Resignation  was  the  easier 
because  good  was  to  be  expected  after  evil.  Pessimistic  as  the 
Greek  poets  often  are,  little  as  they  often  think  of  the  value  of 

*  Iliad,  i.  216;  24.  139;  Sophocles,  Oed.  Tyr.  881;  Xenophon,  Mem.  4.  3.  17. 
2  Iliad,  16.  388 ;    Odyssey,  14.  82 ;  Thucydides,  2.  53,  4. 

8  Xenophon,  Anab.  2. 3,  22 ;  Mem.  i.  4. 19 ;  Antiphon,  Tetral.  2. 2. 12;  Aeschines, 
I.  50;  Isocrates,  5.  116  f. 

*  Iliad,  2.  412 ;  17.  561 ;   16.  233 ;  9.  49. 

6  Sophocles,  Elec.  173  f.  6  Iliad,  19.  274. 


DISTINCTIVE   NATURE   OF   GREEK   RELIGION     349 

human  life,  the  faith  in  gods  who  care  for  the  community  and 
bless  their  righteous  followers  does  not  fail  them. 

Finally  the  sense  of  dependence  on  the  gods  appears  as  man's 
desire  for  companionship  with  them.  The  conception  of  a  father's 
love  for  his  children  does  not  find  very  frequent  mention  in  litera- 
ture, nor  does  it  come  out  clearly  in  the  relation  of  the  gods  to 
men.  It  is  potentially  present  but  undeveloped  even  in  the  case 
of  Zeus.  On  the  other  hand  the  social  bond  uniting  the  god  with 
his  worshippers  lies  at  the  very  root  of  the  Greek  religious  instinct. 
Again  and  again  we  have  had  occasion  to  point  out  that  worship 
and  belief  grew  naturally  out  of  this  conception.  If  the  word 
"companionship"  suggests  too  much  the  relation  of  equals,  yet  it 
is  hard  to  find  a  better  name  for  a  social  connection  so  enduring, 
so  intimate,  so  clearly  conceived  in  terms  of  human  personality. 

When  human  ideals,  and  not  simply  the  facts  and  forces  of 
man's  environment,  found  expression  in  the  gods,  it  is  not  difficult 
to  trace  the  results  of  this  conception  of  the  religious  life.  It  was 
with  the  thought  of  Athena,  protecting  goddess  of  the  city,  that  the 
general  went  into  battle  ;  Artemis,  the  goddess  of  good  counsel 
(Boulaia),  had  her  shrine  where  the  Athenian  assembly  met; 
Athena  Ergane  guided  the  woman  in  her  weaving ;  Hermes  was 
with  the  trader  in  the  market,  Poseidon  with  the  sailor  in  his 
voyage,  Artemis  of  the  wilds  (Agrotera)  with  the  hunter  in  his 
pursuit  of  game.  The  Greeks  reverenced  their  gods,  feared  their 
anger,  trusted  their  protection ;  but  it  was  this  sense  of  divine 
companionship  in  every  task  of  daily  life  which  made  religion  a 
vital  matter. 

It  is  easy  to  imagine  that  in  the  middle  of  the  fifth  century  B.C. 
religion  was  hardly  more  than  a  superstition  for  many  of  the 
Athenians  ;  we  know  too  that  this  superstition  found  its  counter- 
part in  a  rationalism  almost  as  unintelligent ;  yet  we  can  hardly 
believe  that  for  the  audiences  of  Sophocles  religion  was  an  out- 
worn garment  or  the  religious  life  a  mere  name. 


APPENDIX    I 

THE   HISTORICAL  DEVELOPMENT  OF  A  GREEK  GOD  — 

ARTEMIS 

I.  In  the  Introduction  the  difference  between  the  gods  in  wor- 
ship and  the  picture  of  the  gods  in  myth  was  discussed,  and  in 
Part  II  the  stages  in  the  development  of  Greek  religion  were 
briefly  treated.  Perhaps  both  phases  of  the  subject  may  be  made 
clearer,  if  one  concrete  example  is  considered  more  in  detail, 
even  at  the  risk  of  introducing  more  or  less  that  is  hypothetical  in 
the  effort  to  connect  the  historical  data.  For  this  purpose  I  have 
chosen  the  goddess  Artemis  as  a  striking  and  interesting  example. 
Both  in  myth  and  in  worship  the  facts  about  the  goddess  are  as 
definite  as  they  are  abundant.  And  while  much  remains  to  be 
desired  in  explaining  the  facts,  the  general  course  of  development 
is  fairly  well  established. 

The  Artemis  of  myth  is  a  definite  personality  in  story  and  in  art 
from  the  Homeric  poems  on.  The  ideal  of  young  womanhood  in 
all  its  purity  and  vigor,  the  leader  of  the  nymphs  in  the  chase  as 
well  as  in  the  dance,  the  sister  of  Apollo  god  of  light,  and  herself 
sometimes  goddess  of  the  moon  as  Apollo  is  god  of  the  sun  — 
such  is  the  goddess  of  myth.  Particular  myths,  the  stories  of  Cal- 
listo  and  Arethusa  and  Actaeon  and  Hippolytus,  have  to  do  with 
a  goddess  of  hunting  who  stands  for  virginal  purity.  The  connec- 
tion with  Apollo  (even  the  story  of  her  birth  on  the  island  of 
Delos)  seems  to  be  secondary  to  the  idea  of  the  chaste  huntress. 
The  Artemis  of  Versailles  in  the  Louvre  is  the  plastic  representa- 
tion of  this  idea,  an  idea  that  has  left  its  mark  on  all  our  European 
literature.  But  if  we  turn  to  worship,  the  goddess  is  neither  so 
definite  a  person  nor  quite  the  same  person.  Granted  that  prac- 

35° 


APPENDIX   I  351 

tice  is  ordinarily  older  than  story,  the  problem  is  first  to  coordinate 
the  accounts  of  the  worship  of  Artemis  and  then  to  trace,  so  far 
as  is  possible,  the  influences  that  shaped  the  story  and  later 
belief. 

2.  We  may  begin  with  the  cults  of  Artemis  in  the  vicinity  of 
Athens.  At  Agrae,  south  from  the  Acropolis,  was  the  shrine  of 
Artemis  Agrotera,  that  goddess  of  the  hunt  to  whom  before  the 
battle  of  Marathon  the  Athenian  general  vowed  a  sacrifice  of  goats. 
On  the  Acropolis  itself  was  a  branch  of  the  worship  of  Artemis 
Brauronia,  a  goddess  of  wild  nature-life  who  had  some  mystic  con- 
nection with  the  bear.  This  connection  with  wild  animals  again 
appears  in  the  worship  of  Artemis  Mounychia  at  the  seaport  of 
Athens,  and  in  other  cults  on  the  east  coast  of  Attica  (for  example, 
that  of  Artemis  Amarysia) .  The  Brauronian  Artemis  received  the 
names  Chitone  and  Lysizonos,  for  young  women  dedicated  to  her 
garments  and  girdles  before  marriage.  Again,  Artemis  was  iden- 
tified in  worship  with  Hecate,  the  goddess  of  uncanny  rites  per- 
formed at  night ;  Artemis  Hecate  presided  over  the  entrance  to 
the  Athenian  acropolis.  Near  the  market  place  of  Athens  was 
a  shrine  of  Artemis  Orthia,  perhaps  a  goddess  of  vegetation ; 
while  in  the  market  place  Artemis  was  worshipped  as  Boulaia, 
goddess  of  political  wisdom,  and  as  Eukleia,  goddess  of  fair  fame ; 
another  shrine  of  the  goddess  of  political  wisdom,  Artemis  Aristo- 
boule,  was  situated  in  the  deme  of  Melite  to  the  southwest  of  the 
Acropolis.  In  the  Academy  just  out  of  the  city  was  a  shrine  of 
Artemis  with  statues  of  Ariste  and  Kalliste  (" Best"  and  "  Fairest"), 
apparently  forms  of  the  goddess.  The  name  of  Artemis  was  also 
applied  to  some  foreign  goddesses  whose  worship  was  introduced 
into  Athens,  to  the  goddess  of  Pherae  in  Thessaly,  whose  proper 
name  seems  to  have  been  Brimo  (called  Artemis  Pheraea),  and  to 
the  Thracian  Bendis  (Artemis  Bendis).  In  a  word,  we  know 
something  of  ten  or  fifteen  separate  centres  of  Artemis  worship  in 
and  about  Athens.  The  many-sided  nature  of  the  goddess  is, 
from  the  point  of  view  of  worship,  quite  as  evident  as  any  under- 
lying unity. 


352  GREEK  RELIGION 

3.  If  this  survey  is  extended  over  the  Greek  world,  the  result  is 
much  the  same,  except  that  the  wider  view  makes  it  possible  to 
group  the  cults  of  the  goddess  under  certain  general  headings. 
By  far  the  most  widespread  phase  of  Artemis  worship  connects  her 
with  hunting  and  wild  animals.  At  Athens  one  of  the  months  was 
named  Elaphebolion  ("Stag-hunt")  ;  and  there  are  some  refer- 
ences to  a  festival  (Elaphebolia)  at  which  cakes  in  the  form  of 
a  stag  were  offered  to  Artemis,  though  it  does  not  appear  that  this 
worship  was  recognized  by  the  state.  Among  some  Dorian  peoples 
the  same  month  was  known  as  Artamisios  (Artemisios),  while  in 
Phocis  it  was  called  Laphrios  from  the  widespread  worship  of 
Artemis  Laphria.  The  month-name  is  an  indication  that  this  is  an 
early  type  of  Artemis,  and  a  goddess  of  hunting  goes  with  a  rela- 
tively early  type  of  social  life.  The  goddess  herself  receives  some 
names  that  refer  to  hunting,  such  as  Elaphia,  Kynagia,  Toxia.  Ar- 
temis Diktynna,  worshipped  in  Crete  and  Sparta  and  Phocis,  was 
interpreted  by  the  Athenians  as  the  goddess  of  the  hunting  net. 
Artemis  Kolainis  in  Euboea  was  connected  in  story  with  the  hunter 
Amarynthus ;  and  Atalante,  the  huntress  of  Mt.  Parthenopaeus, 
seems  to  have  been  a  form  of  Artemis.  Other  great  hunters, 
Saron,  Hippolytus,  Anticleia,  Scamandrius,  looked  to  Artemis  as 
their  patron.  When  Xenophon  brought  the  worship  of  Artemis 
from  Ephesus  to  Scillus,  he  instituted  the  worship  of  a  hunting 
goddess.  Artemis  Tauropolos  ("Tender  of  bulls")  can  hardly 
be  dissociated  from  the  bull  fights  and  bull  hunts  of  early  Greece, 
and  perhaps  the  torches  which  she  carried  had  primary  reference 
to  the  use  of  torches  in  hunting  at  night.  In  a  word,  the  normal 
Greek  conception  of  Artemis  as  a  huntress  seems  to  be  based  on 
the  primitive  worship  of  a  goddess  of  hunting. 

Closely  associated  with  the  goddess  of  hunting  is  the  "  Queen  of 
wild  beasts."  Reliefs  and  paintings  of  early  date  represent  her 
holding  up  an  animal  in  each  hand  (the  so-called  Persian  Artemis). 
In  different  localities  the  stag,  the  bear,  the  wild  boar,  the  wild 
goat,  the  wolf,  the  quail  (Ortygia),  are  connected  with  her  worship. 
As  Callisto  in  story  was  changed  into  a  bear  for  unchastity,  so 


APPENDIX  I 


353 


Taygete  was  changed  into  a  stag ;  each  is  the  mother  of  a  people, 
and  each  is  apparently  a  form  of  the  goddess  herself.  Artemis 
Laphria,  worshipped  by  hunters,  was  essentially  a  goddess  of  wild 
animal  life  who  received  wild  animals  in  sacrifice.  Artemis  Lyaia 
was  connected  with  th^stag ;  the  nymph  Gyrene  was  an  Artemis- 
like  goddess  associated  with  the  lion,  like  the  Artemis  of  Syracuse  ; 
on  the  island  of  Aegina  Aphaia  was  a  goddess  of  wild  animals  who 
became  Artemis  Aphaia.  For  us  the  goddess  of  hunters  is  perhaps 
hardly  consistent  with  the  goddess  who  protects  wild  animals  and 
cares  for  their  young  j1  the  Greeks  felt  no  such  inconsistency.  This 
goddess  of  wild  animals  was  most  at  home  in  Aetolia,  whence  the 
worship  of  Laphria  was  carried  to  Patrae.  In  Asia  Minor  also  a 
"  Mother  of  Life  "  not  dissimilar  was  very  widely  worshipped  and 
often  identified  with  Artemis  by  the  Greeks. 

4.  A  second  widespread  series  of  cults  recognized  Artemis  as 
a  goddess  of  the  moisture  which  fertilizes  vegetation,  and  conse- 
quently as  the  goddess  of  fertility  not  only  in  plants  but  also  in 
animals  and  men.  This  is  the  goddess  of  springtime,  worshipped 
with  dances  (often  obscene)  to  promote  fertility,  who  held  so  im- 
portant a  place  in  the  religion  of  the  Peloponnese.  In  Laconia 
the  branch  of  olive  hung  before  the  door  gave  its  name  to  Artemis 
Korythalia,  a  goddess  of  plant  life  as  of  child  life.  The  curious 
worship  of  Artemis  Lygodesma,  in  which  the  Spartan  youths  were 
lashed  to  the  limit  of  their  endurance,  and  in  which  a  sickle  or 
pruning  knife  was  the  prize  for  victory  in  the  games,  belongs  under 
this  heading.  This  form  of  Artemis  was  associated  with  trees,  the 
walnut,  the  cedar,  the  laurel,  and  the  cypress.  All  these  cults 
included  dances,  probably  intended  to  increase  the  crpps  and  the 
productiveness  of  flocks.  Artemis  Apanchomene,  the  goddess  "  who 
was  hung,"  was  apparently  connected  with  a  sacred  tree,  from  which 
sacrifices  for  fertility  were  suspended.  Artemis  Lyaia  of  Syracuse 
received  sacks  of  all  fruits  and  skins  of  wine  ;  from  choral  songs 
in  her  honor  the  bucolic  hymns  are  said  to  have  developed. 

iXenophon,  Cyneget.  5. 14;  Aeschylus,  Agam.  135  f. ;  and  cp.  Alexandra,  Pau- 
sanias,  3.  19.  6,  Preller-Robert,  Grlech,  Myth.  307,  A.  a. 
GREEK   RELIGION  —  23 


354  GREEK  RELIGION 

Especially  in  the  Peloponnese  Artemis  was  associated  with  swamps 
and  springs  and  rivers ;  such  forms  of  the  goddess  were  Limnatis, 
worshipped  in  Patrae  and  in  Laconia  with  orgiastic  dance,  Issoria, 
Thermaia,  Alpheiaia,  perhaps  Eurynome  and  Stymphalia.  Are- 
thusa,  also,  is  a  nymph  who  seems  once  to  have  been  a  form  of 
the  goddess  herself. 

In  the  case  of  Artemis  Korythalia  the  festival  in  her  honor  was 
called  Tithenidia  ("  Nurse  festival "),  for  a  part  was  played  by  small 
boys  with  their  nurses  living  in  harvest  huts.  The  blows  given  to 
ephebi  in  the  worship  of  Artemis  Lygodesma  may  be  interpreted 
as  a  means  of  driving  away  evil,  or  as  blows  from  a  "  rod  of  life." 
And  quite  generally  the  dances  of  Artemis  were  anything  but  dances 
of  chaste  nymphs  in  their  origin ;  on  the  contrary,  they  were  sup- 
posed directly  to  stimulate  the  forces  making  for  fertility  in  nature. 
From  such  a  goddess  there  might  easily  have  arisen  a  goddess  of 
the  grain,  had  not  Demeter  won  this  position  among  the  later 
Greeks ;  indeed,  it  is  more  than  possible  that  goddesses  of  this 
type,  such  as  the  Despoina  of  Arcadia,  were  identified  with  the 
later  Demeter  quite  as  often  as  with  the  later  Artemis. 

It  seems  not  unnatural  that  the  goddess  of  nascent  life  should 
also  appear  as  the  goddess  of  human  childbirth,  and  that  the  pro- 
tector of  young  animals  should  also  protect  young  children.  In 
this  function  Artemis  appears  as  Locheia  and  Lysizonos  ;  Eileithyia 
is  now  a  form  of  the  goddess,  now  an  independent  being ;  girls 
were  "  initiated  "  in  the  service  of  Artemis  Brauronia  and  dedicated 
tokens  of  their  childhood  to  her  before  marriage ;  to  Artemis 
Chitone  were  dedicated  garments  after  childbirth  ;  Iphigeneia  and 
Kalligeneia  »are  names  referring  to  this  function  of  the  goddess. 
Clearly  the  protection  of  mothers  and  children  is  primary,  the  virgin 
character  of  the  goddess  secondary,  in  the  nature  of  Artemis. 

Of  the  connection  of  Artemis  with  Apollo  and  Hecate  and  the 
moon,  as  of  her  place  in  city  life,  we  shall  speak  later ,  the  two 
general  types  already  described  seem  to  be  the  basis  out  of  which 
the  later  goddess  developed.  This  division,  however,  does  not 
necessarily  mean  that  the  cults  already  mentioned  are  primitive, 


APPENDIX  I  355 

but  only  of  a  primitive  type  ;  nor  does  it  mean  that  the  cults  dis- 
cussed later  are  inevitably  late  in  origin,  but  rather  that  they  exhibit 
later  conceptions  which  doubtless  were  often  superimposed  on  an 
early  worship. 

5.  The  interesting  fact  as  to  the  cults  discussed  above  is 
that  they  all  have  points  of  connection,  but  no  two  of  them  are 
quite  alike.  Clearly  we  might  assume  one  goddess  whose  nature 
and  worship  had  become  different  in  different  localities,  or  we 
might  assume  different  goddesses  who  were  gradually  merged  into 
the  one  Artemis  of  belief  and  myth  while  certain  peculiarities  were 
retained  at  local  shrines.  To  the  first  assumption  there  are  serious 
objections.  What  is  the  nature  of  the  original  one  goddess?  Surely 
not  the  moon,  as  the  Stoics  assumed,  or  the  night,  as  Glaus  sug- 
gested ;  we  have  no  evidence  of  a  connection  with  the  moon  until 
well  on  in  the  fifth  century.  Again,,  this  theory  leaves  out  of  ac- 
count the  late  identifications  of  Artemis  with  Hecate,  and  Bendis, 
and  the  Mother  goddess  of  Asia  Minor.  Finally,  it  starts  with  the 
unified  conception  of  the  goddess  in  literature  and  art,  and  treats 
the  older  and  more  vital  conceptions  of  worship  as  wholly  secondary. 

Nor  is  it  wholly  satisfactory  to  start  with  the  second  assumption, 
namely,  that  different,  disconnected  goddesses  were  merged  into 
one  because  a  certain  likeness  between  them  was  detected.1  The 
forces  at  work  in  the  late  identifications  such  as  that  of  Artemis 
with  Brimo,  could  hardly  have  existed  in  the  same  form  in  early 
days.  With  Curtius  2  and  Wernicke  3  we  may  begin  by  setting  aside 
these  fairly  late  examples  and  consider  by  itself  the  question  of 
cults  that  may  be  regarded  as  distinctly  early. 

Wernicke  (1.  c.),  in  writing  the  history  of  Artemis,  starts  with 
a  "  great  female  divinity  of  nature  widely  worshipped  in  Greece 
from  early  days,"  and  from  this  one  goddess  he  explains  most 
of  the  later  forms  of  Artemis  by  a  process  of  differentiation  from 
the  general  to  the  specific.  Perhaps  it  is  simply  a  difference  of 

1  Cp.  Cicero,  De  nat.  dear.  3.  23/58 ;  Welcker,  Griech.  G&tterlehre,  i,  560  f. 
8  "  Studien  zur  Geschichte  der  Artemis,"  Ges.  Abhand.  2.  1 1 
*  In  Pauly-Wissowa,  Realencyclopaedie,  2.  1339  L 


356  GREEK  RELIGION 

phraseology,  though  the  difference  seems  to  me  to  lie  deeper,  to 
say  that  the  starting-point  of  Artemis  is  to  be  found  in  a  type 
rather  than  in  any  real  unity  of  person.  The  type  is  fairly  definite  : 
a  goddess  of  the  life  principle  in  nature,  more  closely  connected 
with  vegetation  in  the  Peloponnese  and  with  animals  in  Boeotia 
and  Aetolia,  but  never  quite  limited  to  either  sphere.  At  the  same 
time  the  type  is  fairly  broad,  and  no  one  would  deny  a  tendency  to 
define  it  gradually  (and  differently)  at  each  centre  of  worship. 
This  tendency  to  definition  has  perhaps  been  overemphasized  by 
such  scholars  as  Wernicke,  to  the  neglect  of  a  widespread  tendency 
in  all  phases  of  social  development,  the  tendency  toward  larger  and 
more  complex  unities. 

This  last  tendency  or  process  is  seen  in  the  development  of  the 
state.  Smaller  villages  unite  in  the  city,  and  the  city  absorbs  other 
communities  till  it  becomes  a  city-state  like  Athens  or  Sparta,  and 
on  this  basis  develops  the  Athenian  confederacy  or  the  Spartan 
hegemony.  It  is  seen  in  commerce,  first  in  the  increasing  trade 
of  one  city,  Chalcis  or  Aegina  or  Athens,  later  in  the  increasing 
commercial  unity  of  the  Mediterranean  world.  It  is  seen  in 
ethical  ideals  and  social  institutions,  till  in  the  fifth  century  the 
two  different  standards  of  Athens  and  Sparta  are  dominant  all 
through  the  Greek  world.  It  is  seen  in  language,  where  one  finds 
a  great  variety  of  dialects  to  be  classified  under  certain  types,  then 
a  few  types  tending  to  absorb  lesser  varieties,  and  at  length  a  general 
Koivr).  This  same  tendency  or  process  I  assume  to  have  been  at 
work  in  religion,  a  process  of  synthesis,  of  "  condensation  "  (see 
supra,  p.  212),  of  organization.  And  for  a  particular  goddess  like 
Artemis,  it  means  that  in  popular  belief  (as  well  as  in  myth) 
goddesses  of  the  same  type  tended  to  merge  in  one  personality. 
A  double  name  like  Artemis  Laphria  bears  the  stamp  of  this  process 
in  that  the  first  part  stands  for  the  original  type  and  the  acquired 
unity,  the  second  part  or  epithet  for  the  original  (and  acquired) 
differences  as  seen  in  worship. 

More  concretely  in  the  case  of  Artemis  this  process  might  be 
stated  as  follows  :  Very  many  of  the  small  groups  or  communities 


APPENDIX   I  357 

of  Greek  race  which  made  their  way  down  into  the  land  which 
was  to  become  Greece,  and  whose  independence  was  guaranteed 
for  long  periods  by  the  character  of  the  region  to  which  they  came, 
worshipped  each  some  goddess  of  wild  nature-life.  As  Queen  of 
the  Wild  her  home  would  be  in  moist  dells  where  vegetation 
flourished  and  animals  found  their  favorite  haunts.  Hunters 
worshipped  her  that  she  might  favor  them  in  the  pursuit  of  game ; 
with  the  return  of  vegetable  life  after  the  drought  of  summer  or 
the  cold  of  winter,  men  sought  to  help  the  process  by  "  sympa- 
thetic worship " ;  in  some  places  women  sought  the  blessing  of 
this  divine  mother  that  they  might  bear  strong  children.  From 
one  point  of  view  these  goddesses  were  as  separate  as  the  com- 
munities which  worshipped  them.  Even  when  one  name  came  to 
be  used  for  the  same  idea  in  different  communities,  this  name  did 
not  mean  quite  the  same  in  any  two.  These  forms  of  the  goddess 
were  all  different,  yet  the  conditions  which  gave  rise  to  the  worship 
were  so  similar  that  the  type  was  the  same.  This  statement  is 
hypothesis,  but  it  is  difficult  to  imagine  any  other  hypothesis  if  we 
recognize  (i)  the  multiplicity  and  variety  of  the  later  cults  of 
Artemis,  and  (2)  the  fact  that  social  development  is  from  many 
small  simple  units  to  a  few  larger  and  more  complex  units. 

Only  one  other  possibility  need  be  considered,  viz.  that  the 
personality  of  the  goddess,  like  her  name,  spread  from  some  one 
centre.  We  can  hardly  question  that  the  differences  of  worship, 
quite  as  much  as  the  likenesses,  at  each  cult-centre  are  original. 
On  this  basis  it  becomes  relatively  unimportant  whether  we  believe 
that  the  goddess  Artemis  absorbed  the  goddesses  of  these  different 
worships,  or  that  the  name  Artemis  prevailed  over  other  names 
as  these  goddesses  were  fused  into  one  homogeneous  being.  I 
cannot  but  feel  that  the  first  alternative  lays  undue  stress  on  the 
connection  between  the  name  and  the  complex  personality  of  the 
goddess,  real  as  this  is,  and  that  the  second  alternative  is  truer 
to  the  facts  of  religious  history  in  Greece.  The  early  history  of 
Artemis,  then,  may  be  described  as  a  synthesis  of  goddesses  similar 
but  not  identical  in  nature.  That  it  was  gradual,  perhaps  lagging 


358  GREEK  RELIGION 

behind  the  development  of  a  social  unity  along  other  lines,  that  it 
was  ordinarily  unconscious  and  never  the  result  of  state  decrees 
or  priestly  craft,  that  the  unity  of  the  goddess  came  to  be  clearly 
felt  even  before  myth  and  poetry  did  much  to  make  her  person- 
ality more  real,  we  can  hardly  doubt.  But  with  the  general  accep- 
tance of  the  name  Artemis,  one  stage  in  the  process  was  finally 
completed  and  the  embellishment  of  myth  then  served  to  make 
the  name  and  the  person  of  the  goddess  familiar  throughout 
Greece.1 

6.  It  remains  to  examine  the  different  lines  of  influence  which 
were  at  work  in  forming  the  later  personality  of  the  goddess.  And 
first  are  the  influences  which  may  be  described  as  social.  The 
process  just  outlined  makes  the  creation  of  one  Artemis  dependent 
on  the  forces  which  in  general  make  for  social  and  intellectual  unifi- 
cation; we  may  therefore  expect  that  particular  social  changes, 
with  their  new  activities  and  new  needs,  would  leave  their  mark  on 
the  goddess.  We  have  seen  that  the  early  Artemis  was  intimately 
associated  with  a  period  when  hunting  was  a  real  method  of  liveli- 
hood. As  the  early  communities  came  to  depend  more  on  flocks 
and  herds,  less  on  game,  for  food,  it  would  not  be  unnatural  that 
the  protector  of  wild  animals  should  be  worshipped  as  protector 
of  the  flocks.  This  conception  appears  in  Artemis  Knakalesia, 
Hemerasia  (the  "Tamer"),  Polyboia,  and  perhaps  in  Artemis 
Tauropolos,  as  well  as  in  the  name  of  the  Artemis-nymph  Poly- 
mele.  Ordinarily  the  fact  that  Apollo  was  already  recognized  as 
the  god  of  flocks  prevented  such  a  change  in  the  conception  of 
Artemis.  Again,  the  increased  development  of  agriculture  might 

1  Various  "  heroines  "  and  nymphs  in  the  train  of  Artemis  may  be  regarded  as 
a  by-product  of  this  process,  either  because  an  old  goddess-name  was  too  strongly 
rooted  to  permit  its  disappearance  in  an  epithet  of  Artemis,  or  because  it  had 
already  found  a  place  for  itself  in  story.  Iphigenia  was  such  an  Artemis  "  heroine," 
worshipped  at  Megara  in  her  own  name  (Pausanius,  r.  43. 3)  and  prominent  in  myth, 
while  at  Hermione  there  was  a  worship  of  Artemis  Iphigenia.  Atalante  was  appar- 
ently a  form  of  Artemis,  who  later  became  a  heroine  of  myth.  And  the  nymphs 
Callisto,  Taygete,  Ortygia,  Arethusa,  Diktynna,  have  already  been  mentioned  as 
forms  of  the  goddess  herself. 


APPENDIX   I  359 

easily  have  transformed  Artemis  the  goddess  of  fertility  into  a 
goddess  of  the  grain,  had  not  Demeter  and  Persephone  been  the 
first  to  receive  this  function.  In  the  Peloponnesus,  however,  we 
find  the  old  rites  in  honor  of  the  goddess  of  fertility  still  widely 
celebrated  in  later  times  in  order  that  crops  may  be  prospered ; 
in  other  words,  the  worship  is  adapted  in  many  places  to  the  needs 
of  an  agricultural  people.  With  the  development  of  city  life  the 
earlier  phases  of  Artemis  worship  (connected  with  hunting  and 
with  vegetable  life)  might  naturally  fall  into  disuse,  while  her  func- 
tion as  protector  of  women  in  childbirth  and  of  young  children 
would  remain.  In  spite  of  influences  tending  to  emphasize  the 
virgin  goddess,  the  phase  of  her  nature  just  mentioned  found  rec- 
ognition in  Attica,  Boeotia,  and  elsewhere. 

The  tendency  in  Greece  to  regard  a  community  as  under  the 
protection  of  some  one  god,  the  god  of  the  city,  is  seen  even  in 
the  case  of  Artemis.  At  Patrae,  Artemis  Triklaria  seems  to  have 
been  the  divinity  in  whose  name  and  worship  different  communi- 
ties combined  to  establish  the  city.  In  Euboea,  the  pan-Ionic 
league  met  at  the  temple  of  Artemis  Amarysia  under  the  sanction- 
ing protection  of  the  goddess.  The  goddess  of  good  counsel, 
Artemis  Boulaia,  or  Boulephoros,  had  some  political  significance ; 
the  same  may  probably  be  said  of  Artemis  Peitho,  the  goddess 
of  (rhetorical?)  persuasion  at  Argos.  In  various  cities  Artemis 
worship  was  carried  on  at  the  market  place  (Aegium,  Athens, 
Sicyon,  Sparta,  Troezen),  and  perhaps  the  name  Artemis  Agoraia  at 
Olympia  refers  to  a  connection  with  trade.  It  involved  no  great 
change  to  transform  the  hunting  goddess  into  a  war  goddess. 
The  epithets  Aristoboule,  Eukleia,  and  Soteira  are  doubtless  to  be 
explained  by  the  counsel,  fair  fame,  and  safety  which  Artemis 
granted  in  war.  It  is  not  unnatural,  then,  that  goats  were  offered 
to  Artemis  Agrotera  after  Marathon,  or  that  the  victory  at  Salamis 
was  celebrated  in  connection  with  the  festival  of  Artemis  Mou- 
nichia.  The  relation  of  Artemis  to  the  early  "  Mother  of  Life  "  in 
Asia  Minor,  also,  gave  her  name  and  character  to  the  city  goddess 
in  some  important  places. 


360  GREEK   RELIGION 

7.  Another  important  line  of  influence  in  the  history  of  Artemis 
was  religious  in  its  nature,  in  that  other  forms  of  worship  and  belief 
tended  to  modify  the  idea  of  Artemis  in  belief  and  in  worship. 
I  refer  particularly  to  the  relation  with  Apollo  which  was  fixed 
before  the  time  of  the  Homeric  poems,  and  to  the  relation  with 
Hecate  which  was  fully  recognized  in  the  fifth  century,  though 
religious  influence  may  be  detected  at  various  other  points.  In 
all  Greek  literature,  and  at  many  centres  of  worship,  Artemis  was 
the  daughter  of  Leto  and  the  sister  of  Apollo.  In  consequence 
of  this  relation  Leto  received  the  attribution  of  motherhood  which 
might  properly  have  gone  to  Artemis,  protector  of  mothers ; 
Artemis  became  the  ideal  of  young  womanhood,  as  Apollo  was 
the  ideal  of  young  manhood ;  the  orgiastic  dances  of  the  goddess 
of  fertility  were  in  some  places  transformed  to  beautiful  dances  of 
chaste  nymphs  led  by  a  goddess  of  music ;  the  goddess  of  mois- 
ture and  springs  was  recognized  as  the  goddess  of  healing  at 
springs  (for  example,  Artemis  Thermaia);  it  was  easier  to  asso- 
ciate Artemis  with  the  moon  inasmuch  as  Apollo  was  associated 
with  the  sun ;  Artemis  gained  a  place  in  such  centres  of  Apollo 
worship  as  Delphi  and  received  various  epithets  which  belonged 
first  to  Apollo.1  One  might  almost  say  that  Artemis  received  the 
lyre  from  Apollo,  and  Apollo  the  bow  from  Artemis.  The  origin 
of  this  connection  with  Apollo  is  involved  in  obscurity.  It  is  more 
than  probable,  as  Farnell  points  out,2  that  "  the  place  where  the 
deities  were  first  closely  associated,  and  whence  the  belief  in  their 
twinship  spread,  was  .  .  .  Delos  "  and  the  neighboring  Rheneia. 
The  important  fact  remains  that  the  Artemis  of  worship,  like  the 
Artemis  of  myth,  was  profoundly  modified  by  this  relation  with 
Apollo. 

The  connection  with  Hecate  is  even  more  intimate,  though 
not  effective  at  so  many  points.  The  name  Hecate  seems  to 
mean  "  Far-worker,"  a  conception  which  appears  also  in  the  name 
Hekaerge  at  Delos  and  in  poetic  epithets  of  Apollo  and  Artemis  : 

1  See  Pauly-Wissowa,  Realencyclopaedie,  2,  1361. 

2  Farnell,  Cults  of  the  Greek  States,  z.  465. 


APPENDIX   I  361 

the  connection  of  this  conception  with  the  Hecate  of  myth  and 
of  worship  is  not  to  be  discovered.  We  learn  of  Hecate  as  god- 
dess of  the  night  and  of  weird  and  uncanny  rites  connected  with 
darkness ;  she  is  the  goddess  of  entrances  and  of  divided  roads 
where  a  new  road  is  entered ;  she  is  goddess  of  the  moon  and 
the  special  protector  of  women ;  dogs  are  her  favorite  animal. 
Farnell  argues  with  force1  that  this  is  a  Thracian- Phrygian  earth 
goddess  who  found  her  way  into  Greece,  where  she  came  into  con- 
nection with  the  Greek  goddess  of  fertility  and  of  hunting.  We 
may  point  out,  however,  that  the  early  Artemis  (the  goddess  of 
fertility  and  Queen  of  the  Wild)  was  far  more  like  Hecate  than 
like  Artemis  the  sister  of  Apollo.  It  is  probable  that  the  older 
conception  of  Artemis  divided  when  the  goddess  was  brought  into 
relation  with  Apollo,  that  on  the  one  hand  the  Olympian  Artemis 
became  the  ideal  of  maidenhood  in  all  its  purity,  that  on  the  other 
hand  weird  and  half  magical  rites  gathered  about  an  Artemis 
Hecate  who  came  to  be  more  and  more  a  goddess  of  the  night, 
of  souls  wandering  at  night,  of  all  that  was  uncanny.  Certainly 
Hecate  stands  in  relation  with  the  more  primitive  type  of  Artemis, 
and  if  she  be  a  foreign  goddess,  her  influence  on  Artemis  was  to 
preserve  and  develop  this  more  primitive  type. 

Relations  with  other  gods,  Aphrodite,  Demeter,  Dionysus,  Her- 
mes, etc.,  played  their  part  in  the  history  of  Artemis,  but  no  such 
important  part  as  the  relations  with  Apollo  and  Hecate.  More- 
over, the  general  influence  of  the  Olympian  worship  (v.  supra, 
p.  227)  must  have  affected  profoundly  the  peculiar  rites  in  honor 
of  a  goddess  of  fertility,  though  in  many  places  they  persisted  all 
through  the  history  of  ancient  Greece.  Rhythmic  dance  and 
hymn,  the  stately  procession,  and  the  sacrificial  meal  come  into 
the  worship  of  Artemis  largely  through  the  influence  of  worship  in 
other  Olympian  cults. 

8.  The  third  important  line  of  influence  in  shaping  the  concep- 
tion of  Artemis  is  found  in  myth  and  literature  and  plastic  art. 
In  the  myths  of  Artemis  she  acquires  some  real  personality  —  a 

1  Faruell,  Cults  of  the  Greek  States,  2,  509. 


362  GREEK   RELIGION 

person  easily  vexed  by  neglect  in  Calydon,  by  the  presumption  of 
Actaeon,  by  the  unchastity  of  Callisto  ;  a  person  delighting  in  the 
dance  and  in  hunting.  The  myths  of  Apollo,  making  a  place  for 
her,  help  to  develop  this  personality.  Yet  it  remains  for  the  epic 
to  give  individual  character  to  Artemis  as  to  the  other  gods  by  mak- 
ing them  real  persons  and  actors  in  its  drama.  The  personality 
of  the  goddess  as  developed  in  myth  and  poetry  could  but  exercise 
a  constant  shaping  influence  on  the  belief  of  the  worshipper.  The 
poet's  work  was  supplemented  by  that  of  the  painter  and  the 
sculptor.  Early  vases  depict  the  Queen  of  the  Wild  ; l  later  she 
is  pictured  as  sister  of  Apollo,  or  in  some  scene  from  an  Artemis 
myth.  On  the  frieze  of  Apollo's  temple  at  Phigaleia  she  is  seen 
riding  with  her  brother  in  a  chariot  drawn  by  stags.  The  great 
temple  statues,  however,  statues  like  the  Dionysus  of  Alcamenes 
and  the  Brauronian  Artemis  of  Praxiteles,  were  the  means  by  which 
art  profoundly  modified  religion.  If  it  was  the  work  of  poetry  to 
make  the  gods  real  persons,  with  a  character  that  was  individual 
yet  not  devoid  of  universal  meaning,  it  was  the  work  of  plastic  art 
so  to  represent  these  divine  persons  as  to  interpret  to  men  their 
own  religious  experience. 

9.  To  resume  :  The  history  of  Artemis  was  written  in  two  chap- 
ters, Artemis  before  the  epic  and  Artemis  from  the  rise  of  the 
epic  on.  After  the  rise  of  the  epic  the  influences  of  creative 
imagination  (which  early  had  been  active  in  myth)  gave  life  to 
the  personality  of  the  goddess ;  they  even  deepened  the  religious 
meaning  of  the  goddess  for  her  worshipper.  Before  the  rise  of 
the  epic,  and  in  a  measure  later,  religious  influences  were  pro- 
foundly modifying  the  conception  of  Artemis  and  the  forms  of  her 
worship.  But  in  the  earlier  chapter  of  her  history  the  influences 
which  really  shaped  the  conception  of  the  goddess  were  the  same 
forces  which  were  at  work  in  all  phases  of  social  development. 
Starting  with  this  assumption,  we  find  it  to  be  the  only  reasonable 
hypothesis  that  the  later  complex  Artemis  was  the  result  of  a  par- 
tial fusion  of  simpler  and  more  vague  nature-goddesses  similar  in 

1  Cp.  'E<t>.  'Apx-  (1^92),  219  f.  and  pi.  10. 


APPENDIX   I  363 

type,  which  were  worshipped  more  or  less  widely  by  the  early  small 
communities  of  Greece.  While  the  possibility  remains  that  the 
unifying  power  that  made  one  Artemis  was  due  to  some  foreign  im- 
pulse, Cretan  or  Asiatic  or  Celtic,  it  would  require  strong  evidence 
to  prove  that  the  goddess  was  not  essentially  Greek  in  origin  and 
in  development. 


APPENDIX    II 


TABLE  OF   THE   MORE   IMPORTANT   RELIGIOUS   FESTIVALS 
AT   ATHENS 


MONTH 

DAY 

NAME  OF  FESTIVAL 

GOD  OR  GODS  HONORED 

Hekatombaion 

12 

Kronia 

Cronus  and  Rhea 

16 

Synoikia 

Athena  (  ?)  ;  Eirene 

27-28 

Panathenaia 

Athena 

Metageitnion 

Herakleia 

Heracles 

Eleutheria 

Zeus 

Boedromion 

5 

Genesia    (Nemesia, 

Gaia 

Nekysia) 

6 

(Marathon  celebra- 

Artemis 

tion) 

7(?) 

Boedromia 

Apollo 

12 

Charisteria 

Athena  (?) 

16-25 

Eleusinia 

Demeter  and  Per- 

sephone 

18 

Asklepieia 

Asclepius 

Pyanopsion 

7 

Pyanopsia 

Apollo 

Oschophoria 

Apollo 

8 

Theseia 

io-i4(?) 

Thesmophoria 

Demeter  and  Per- 

sephone 

Apatouria 

Zeus  Phratrios  ; 

Athena 

30 

Chalkeia 

Athena  ;  Hephaes- 

tus 

Poseideon 

Country  Dionysia 

Dionysus 

Haloia 

364 


APPENDIX  II 


365 


TABLE  OF   RELIGIOUS   FESTIVALS  —  (Continued) 


MONTH 

DAY 

NAME  OF  FESTIVAL 

GOD  OR  GODS  HONORED 

Gamelion 

I2(?) 

Epilenaia 

Dionysus 

Theogamia 

(Zeus  and  Hera) 

Anthesterion 

11-13 

Anthesteria 

Dionysus 

Lesser  Mysteries 

De  meter,    Perseph- 

one, Dionysus 

23 

Diasia 

Zeus  Meilichios 

Elaphebolion 

9-13 

City  Dionysia 

Dionysus 

14 

Pandia 

Zeus 

Mounichion 

6(?) 

Delphinia 

Apollo 

16 

Mounichia 

Artemis 

19 

Olympieia 

Zeus 

Thargelion 

6-7 

Thargelia 

Apollo 

19-20 

Bendideia 

Artemis  Bendis 

20 

Kallynteria 

Athena 

25(?) 

Plynteria 

Athena 

Skirophorion 

12 

Skira,  Skirophoria 

Athena 

14 

Dipolia  ;  Disoteria 

Zeus  Polieus 

APPENDIX    III 

BIBLIOGRAPHY 
General  works. 

PETERSEN,  CHR.,  Religion  oder  Mythologie,  Theologie  und  Gottesver- 
ehrung  der  Griechen,  in  Ersch  und  Gruber,  Encyclopaedie,  1864. 

Part  I  gives  the  best  available  account  of  ancient  and  modern  literature 
on  the  subject  up  to  Petersen's  time.  Special  literature  is  cited  at  the 
beginning  of  each  section.  The  later  chapters  are  important  for  the  history 
of  religion  in  Greece. 

GRUPPE,  O.,  Die  griechischen  Culte  und  Mythen,  I.  1887. 

The  criticism  of  mythological  theories  in  the  nineteenth  century  and  of 
early  literary  sources  is  very  valuable. 

Griechische  Mythologie  und  Religionsgeschichte  in  I.  v.  Mullet's 

Handbuch.     1897-1906. 

The  literature  is  fully  cited  at  the  beginning  of  each  section.  This  is  the 
most  comprehensive  work  on  the  subject  and  the  references  in  the  foot- 
notes are  quite  exhaustive ;  it  may  perhaps  be  criticised  because  of  the 
emphasis  it  lays  on  the  author's  individual  views  of  early  Greek  history. 

PRELLER-ROBERT,  Griechische  Mythologie,  I.     1894. 

Many  of  the  data  for  a  study  of  Greek  religion  are  given  conveniently  in 
this  classic  work  on  Greek  mythology. 

ROSCHER,  W.  H.,  Ausftihrltckes  Lexikon  der  griechischen  und  rom- 
ischen  Mythologie.     1884- 

Particularly  the  later  articles,  which  are  more  exhaustive,  give  many  data 
for  the  study  of  religion. 

FOUCHER,  I/ABBE,  Recherches  sur  Porigine  el  la  nature  de  Fhellenisme, 
ou  de  la  religion  de  la  Grece.     1762-1770. 

A  series  of  essays  criticising  the  system  of  Euhemerus  and  studying  the 
historical  forces  at  work  in  Greek  religion. 
366 


APPENDIX  III  367 

LE  CLERC  DES  SEPT-CHENES,  Essai  sur  la  religion  des  anciens  Grecs. 
1787. 

Four  chapters  discuss  the  gods,  the  mysteries,  other  religious  institutions, 
and  the  influence  of  religion  in  Greece.  In  the  appendix  is  a  criticism  of 
contemporary  works  on  the  subject. 

HERRMANN,  M.  G.,  Die  Feste  von  Hellas.     1803. 

An  elaborate  study  of  the  religious  festivals,  for  the  most  part  out  of  date. 

CREUZER,  FR.,  Symbolik  und  Mythologie  der  alien  Volker,  besonders 
der  Griechen.     Second  edition,  1819-1823. 

The  most  complete  presentation  of  the  allegorical  point  of  view  in  the 
study  of  Greek  religion ;  in  its  day  a  very  influeniial  book,  but  strictly 
limited  by  the  author's  desire  to  find  the  inner  meaning  of  the  phenomena 
studied. 

LOBECK,  CHR.  A.,  Aglaophamus  sive  de  theologiae  mysticae  Graeco- 
rum  causis.     1829. 

This  critical  examination  of  the  sources  for  a  knowledge  of  the  Greek 
mysteries  marked  a  new  epoch  in  the  study  of  Greek  religion,  and  is  the 
basis  of  all  later  work  in  that  direction. 

VAN  LIMBURG  BROUWER,  P.,  Histoire  de  la  civilisation  morale  et  reli- 
gieuse  des  Grecs.     1 833- 1 84 1 . 

Lack  of  the  critical  faculty  and  outgrown  views  of  early  Greek  history 
interfere  somewhat  with  the  usefulness  of  this  interesting  work. 

STUHR,  P.  F.,  Die  Religions-systeme  der  Hellenen  in  ihrer  geschicht- 
lichen  Entwickelung  bis  auf  die  makedonische  Zeit.     1838. 

The  attempted  interpretation  of  the  Greek  gods  in  their  philosophical 
meaning  no  longer  receives  the  same  importance  which  the  author  of  this 
work  attached  to  it. 

VON  NAEGELSBACH,  C.  FR.,  Homerische  Theologie.     1840.    Third 
edition  by  Autenrieth,  1884. 

The  data  from  the  Homeric  poems  are  fully  cited  under  headings  de- 
veloped in  the  dogmatic  theology  of  the  Christian  church.  As  a  collection 
of  material  with  some  suggestive  criticism  the  book  is  still  useful. 

Die  nachhomerische  Theologie  des  griechischen  Volksglaubens  bis 

auf  Alexander.     1857. 

A  continuation  of  the  previous  work  with  reference  to  Greek  literature 
after  Homer.  The  combination  of  material  from  very  different  sources,  as 
well  as  the  theological  lines  along  which  it  is  examined,  interfere  with  its 
usefulness. 


368  GREEK  RELIGION 

WACHSMUTH,  W.,  Hellenische  Alterthumskunde  aus  dem  Gesichts- 
punkte  des  Stoats.     Second  edition,  1844. 

In  book  VIII  the  gods  and  their  worship  are  considered  from  the  point 
of  view  of  the  state. 

RINCK,  W.  FR.,  Die  Religion  der  Hellenen,  aus  den   Mythen,  den 
Lehren  der  Philosophen  nnd  dem  Kultus  entwickelt  und  dargestellt. 
1853-54. 
VON  LASAULX,  E.,  Studien  des  klassischen  Alterthrtms.     1854. 

Contains  several  important  essays  on  topics  pertaining  to  Greek  religion. 
GERHARD,  E.,  Griechische  Mythologie.     1854. 

Under  the  different  gods  are  given  many  data  as  to  local  cults. 

SCHOEMANN,  G.  F.,  Griechische  Alterthumer.     1855.     Fourth  edition 
by  J.  H.  Lipsius.     1897,  1902. 

Part  V,  "  Religionswesen,"  is  an  extremely  valuable  account  of  Greek 
religion.  . 

MAURY,  L.  F.  A.,  Histoire  des  religions  de  la  Grece  antique.     1857. 

An  interesting  comprehensive  account  of  the  subject,  with  much  that  is 
still  suggestive. 

MOMMSEN,  A.,  Heortologie.     1864.     Second  edition,  Feste  der  Stadt 
Athen  ini  Altertum,  geordnet  nach  attischem  Kalendar.     1898. 

A  careful  study  of  the  religious  festivals  of  Athens,  sometimes  marred 
by  hypotheses  which  are  not  generally  accepted. 

GIRARD,  J.,  Le  sentiment  religieux  en  Grece  d^Hotnere  a  Eschyle. 
1869. 

An  interesting  essay,  mainly  on  the  expression  of  religion  in  earlier 
Greek  literature. 

LEHRS,  K.,  Populare  Aufsatze  aus  dem  Altertkum,  vorzugsweise  zur 
Ethik  und  Religion  der  Griechen.     1875. 

The  author's  natural  sympathy  with  the  Greek  point  of  view  lends  spe- 
cial value  to  these  papers. 

BURSIAN,  C,  Ueber  den  religiosen  Charakter  des  griechischen  Mythos. 

1875. 
MANNHARDT,  W.,  Antike  Wald-  und  Feldkulie  aus  nordeuropaischer 

Ueberlieferung  erldutert.     1877. 

A  stimulating  and  thorough  discussion  from  the  anthropological  point 
of  view. 


APPENDIX   III  369 

DYER,  L.,  Studies  of  the  Gods  in  Greece  at  certain  Sanctuaries  re- 
cently excavated.  1891. 

USENER,  H.,  Gotternamen :  Versuch  einer  Lehre  von  der  religiosen 
Begriffsbildung.  1 896. 

A  brilliant,  perhaps  sometimes  erratic,  study  of  the  development  of  the 
Greek  gods  from  the  point  of  view  of  language. 

FARNELL,  L.  R.,  The  Cults  of  the  Greek  States.     1896,  1907. 

For  each  god  there  is  a  discussion  of  the  nature  of  the  god  as  shown  in 
different  cults,  of  the  cult  monuments,  and  of  the  ideal  types  in  art.  An- 
thropological material  is  used  with  much  discrimination  and  the  older 
physical  explanations  of  the  gods  are  criticised.  The  discussion  aims  to 
explain  the  nature  of  the  gods  rather  than  to  treat  the  cults  exhaustively. 

VON  PROTT-ZIEHEN,  Leges  Graecorum  sacrae  e  titulis  collectae.     I. 

VON  PROTT,  Fasti  sacri.     1896.     II.  ZIEHEN,  Leges  Graeciae  et 

insular  um.     1906. 
FRAZER,  J.  G.,  Pausanias^s  Description  of  Greece.     Translated  with 

commentary.     1 898 . 

The  commentary  contains  much  material,  mainly  of  an  anthropological 
character,  to  illustrate  the  cults  mentioned  by  Pausanias. 

GILBERT,  O.,  Griechische  Gotterlehre  in  ihren  Grundzugen  dargestellt. 
1898. 

The  different  gods  are  discussed  as  expressing  natural  phenomena;  the 
work  is  rather  philosophical  than  historical,  a  critical  elaboration  of  the 
point  of  view  which  appears  in  later  Greek  philosophy  when  it  deals  with 
the  gods. 

HARRISON,  J.  E.,  Prolegomena  to  the  Study  of  Greek  Religion.  1903. 
Second  edition,  1908. 

Through  study  of  ritual  the  author  attempts  to  explain  the  development 
of  greater  gods,  with  kindly  nature,  from  lesser  spirits  by  nature  evil. 
References  in  the  text  are  to  the  first  edition. 

The  Religion  of  Ancient  Greece,  1906. 

FRAZER,  J.  G.,  Adonis,  Attis,  and  Osiris.     1903. 
NILSSON,  M.  P.,  Griechische  Feste  -von  religioser  Bedeutung  mit  Aits- 
schluss  der  attischen.     1906. 

An  able  and  thorough  work,  especially  valuable  for  the  sanity  of  its 
critical  discussions. 

GREEK  RELIGION — 24 


370  GREEK   RELIGION 

The  account  of  religion  in  Greek  literature. 

GIRARD,  J.,  Le  sentiment  religieux  en    Greet  d^Homere  It  Eschyle. 

1869. 

PACKARD,  L.  R.,  Studies  in  Greek  Thought.     1886. 
CAMPBELL,  L.,  Religion  in  Greek  Literature.     1898. 

As  over  against  the  anthropological  method,  the  author  has  "sought 
to  emphasize  the  element  of  religious  feeling  and  reflection  which  per- 
vades Greek  literature  and  is  a  possession  which  forms  part  of  the  inalien- 
able heritage  of  mankind." 

E.  E.  G.,  The  Makers  of  Hellas :  A  Critical  Inquiry  into  the  Philoso- 
phy and  Religion  of  Ancient  Greece.  1903. 

A  discussion  of  ethical  and  religious  principles  as  they  appear  in  Greek 
authors  from  Homer  to  Aristotle. 

ADAM,  J.,  The  Religious  Teachers  of  Greece.     1908. 

Lectures  on  Greek  religion  as  a  factor  in  Greek  literature  from  Homer 
to  Plato  ;  the  best  available  treatment  of  the  subject. 

BUCHHOLZ,  E.,  Die  Homer ischen  Realien,  III.  i,  "  Die  homerische  Got- 

terlehre."     1884. 
BRUNS,  I., Die griechischen  Tragodien  als  religionsgeschichtliche  Quelle. 

1894. 
MULLER,   K.  O.,   Aeschylos  Eumeniden  mit  erlduternden  Abhand- 

lungen.     1833. 
ULLRICH,  F.  W.,  Ueber  die  religiose  und  sittliche  Bedeutung  der 

Antigone  des  Sophokles.     1853. 

LUBK.ER,  F.,  Die  sophokleische  Theologie  und  Ethik.     1851,  1855. 
VERRALL,  A.  W.,  Euripides  the  Rationalist. 
HOFFMEISTER,  Sittlichreligfose  Lebensansicht  des  Herodotos.     1832. 

Religious  antiquities. 

FASOLDUS,  J.,  Graecorum  veterum  hierologia,  hoc  est,  de  plurimis 
Graecorum  gentilium  antiquitatibus  ritibusque  sacris.  1576. 

SAUBERTUS,  J.,  De  sacrificiis  -veterum.     1659. 

BROUERIUS,  M.,  De  popular  um  'veterum  ac  recentiorum  adorationibus 
dissertatio.  1713. 

LAKEMACHER,  J.  G.,  Antiquitates  Graecorum  sacrae.     1734. 

STEINHOFER,  M.  J.  U.,  Graecia  sacra,  hoc  est,  ritus  atque  consuetu- 
dines  veterum  Graecorum  circa  sacra.  1734. 


APPENDIX   III  371 

HERMANN,  K.  F.,  Lehrbuch  der  griechischen  Antiquitaten,  II.  "Got- 

tesdienstliche  Alterthiimer."     1846. 
SEEM  ANN,  O.,   Die  gottesdienstlichen  Gebrauche  der  Griechen  und 

Romer.     1888. 

A  brief  and  convenient  popular  account. 

STENGEL,   P.,  Die  griechischen  Kultusaltertumer  in  I.  v.  Mliller's 
Handbuch.     Second  edition,  1898. 

A  critical  treatise  with  full  references ;  the  author  has  discussed  many 
special  points  connected  with  the  subject  in  Hermes  and  other  periodicals. 

Local  cults  and  religious  festivals. 

MEURSIUS,  J.,  Graeciaferiata  sive  de  festis  Graecorum,  in  Gronovius, 

Thesaurus,  VII. 

HERRMANN,  M.  G.,  Die  Feste  von  Hellas.     1803. 
FARNELL,  L.  R.,  The  Cults  of  the  Greek  States,     1896,  1907. 

References  to  accounts  of  local  worship  are  given  at  the  end  of  the  dis- 
cussion of  each  god. 

PRELLER-ROBERT,  Griechische  Mythologie.     I.  1894. 
See  Index  II,  "  Register  der  Cultorte." 

MOMMSEN,  A.,  Heortologie.     1864.     Second  edition,  Feste  der  Stadt 

Athen  im  Altertum.     1898. 

PFUHL,  E.,  De  Atheniensium  pompis  sacris.     1900. 
MILCHHOFER,  A.,  Ueber  den  attischen  Apollon.     1873. 
COLIN,  G.,  Le  culte  a"1  Apollon  pythien  a  Athenes.     1905. 
SUCHIER,  H.  F.,  De  Diana  brauronia.     1847. 
DETTMER,  H.,  De  Hercule  attico.     1869. 
RIBBECK,   O.,   Anfange   und  Entwickelung  des  Dionysoscultus  in 

Attika.     1869. 

GILBERT,  O.,  Die  Festzeit  der  attischen  Dionysien.     1872. 
NILSSON,  M.  P.,  Studia  de  Dionysiis  atticis.     1900. 
FOUCART,  P.,  Le  culte  de  Dionysos  en  Attique.     1904. 

The  attempt  is  made  to  trace  back  to  Egyptian  influence  the  early  Dio- 
nysus worship  of  Attica. 

GERHARD,  E.,  Ueber  die  Anthesterien  und  das  Verhaltniss  des  atti^ 

schen  Dionysos  zum  Koradienst.     1858. 
BAND,  O.,  De  Diipoliorum  sacro  Atheniensium.     1873. 

Die  attischen  Diasien.     1883. 

Das  attische  Demeter-Kore  Fest  der  Epikleidia.    \  887. 


372  GREEK   RELIGION 

BOTTICHER,  C.,  Ueber  Stiftung  und  Inhalt  des  Eleusinion  zu  Athen. 
NITZSCH,  G.  G.,  De  Eleusiniorum  ratione.     1842. 

De  Eleusiniorum  actione  el  arguinento.     \  846. 

STRUBE,  C.,  Studien  uber  den  Bilderkreis  von  Eleusis.     1870. 

CURTIUS,  E.,  Athen  und  Eleusis.     1884. 

RUBENSOHN,  O.,  Die  Mysterienheiligtumer  in  Eleusis  und  Samo- 

thrake.     1892. 

DUMMLER,  F.,  Einige  eleusinische  Denkmdler.     1894. 
KERN,  O.,  "Das  Kultbild  der  Gb'ttinnen  von  Eleusis"  in  Athen. 

Mitth.  17  (1892). 

PHILIOS,  D.,  Eleusis,  ses  mysteres,  ses  ruines  et  son  musee.     1896. 
FOUCART,  P.,  Keener -ches  snr  rorigine  et  la   nature  des  mysteres 

d' 'Eleusis.     1895. 
Les  grands  mysteres  d'1  Eleusis,  personnel,  ceremonies.     1900. 

The  Eleusinian  mysteries  are  traced  back  to  the  mysteries  of  Osiris  and 
I  sis  in  Egypt. 

MUELLER,  H.  A.,  Panathenaica.     1837. 

WELLAUER,  A.,  De  Thesmophoriis.     1820. 

NILSSON,  M.  P.,  Griechische  Feste  -von  religioser  Bedeutung  mit  Aus- 

schluss  der  attischen.     1906. 
HARDION,  L1  oracle  de  Delphes.     1712. 
GOTTE,  W.,  Das  delphische  Orakel  in  seinem  politischen,  religfosen 

und  sittlichen  Einfluss  auf  die  alte  Welt.     1839. 
PETERSEN,  C.,  Der  delphische  Festcyclus  des  Apollon  und  des  Diony- 

sos.     1859. 
WENIGER,  L.,  Quaestionum  delphicarum  specimen.     1865. 

Die  religiose  Seite  der  grossen  Pythien.     1870. 

Ueber  das  Collegium  der  Thyiaden  von  Delphi.     1876. 

HAHNE,  L.,  Defano  Apollinis  delphico.     1872. 

MOMMSEN,  A.,  Delphika.     1878. 

Fouilles  de  Delphes  executees  aux  frais  du  gouvernement  fran$ais 

sous  la  direction  de  M.  Th.  Homolle.     1902  f. 
CURTIUS,  E.,  Die  Altar e  -von  Olympia.     1881. 
BOETTICHER,  A.,  Olympia,  das  Fest  und  seine  Stdtte.     1883,  1886. 
WENIGER,  L.,  Der  Gottesdienst  in  Olympia.     1884. 

—  Das  Hochfest  des  Zeus  in  Olympia.     1904.  1905. 
HEFFTER,  M.  W.,  Die  Gotterdienste  auf  Rhodus  im  Alterthume. 

1827. 


APPENDIX  III  373 

DITTENBERGER,  G.,  De  sacris  Rhodiorum.     1886,  1887. 

WIDE,  S.,  De  sacris  Troezenionum,  Hermionensium,  Epidauriorum. 

1888. 

—  Lakonische  Kulte.     1893. 

IMMERWAHR,  W.,  Die  Kulte  und  My t ft  en  Arkadiens,  1891. 
ODELBERG,  P.,  Sacra  Corinthia,  Stcyonta,  Phliasia,     1896. 

Part  I,  Chap.  i.  (In  addition  to  sections  in  the  general  works  cited 
above,  and  to  works  on  the  cult  at  Delphi  noted  under  "local 
cults  "  above.) 

VAN  DALE,  A.,  De  oraculds  -veterum  ethnicorum  dissertationes  duae. 
1700.        C^Ki^t  5&d&~*2  J  ^V«^  (TV-^C^  * 
A  learned  discussion  and  criticisrri  of  the  literary  sources. 

CHRISTMANN,   Versuch  einer   Geschichte  der  vornehmsten   Orakel. 

1775- 

HULLMAN,  K.  D.,  Wurdigung des  delphischen  Orakels.     1837. 
IIiNZPETER,  G.,  De  m  ac  natura  graecorum  oraculorum.     1850. 
EH  LINGER,  De  Apolline  et  oraculo  ejus  delphico.     1870. 
DOEHLER,  E.,  Die  Orakel.     1872. 
HENDESS,  R.,  Oracula  graeca.     1877. 

An  edition  of  the  oracles  quoted  by  Greek  writers. 

BOUCHE-LECLERCQ,  Histoire  de  la  divination  dans  P antiquite.    1878- 

1882. 

POMTOW,  }.  R.,  Quaestionutn  de  oraculis  caput  selectum.     1881. 
STUTZLE,  Das  griechische  Orakelwesenund  besonders  die  Orakelstatte 

Dodona  und  Delphi.     1887,1891. 

Part  I,  Chap.  ii.     (See  references  to  current  literature  cited  in  Stengel, 

Kultusaltertumer . ) 
NISSEN,  H.,  Das  Temphtm.     1869. 
KOHTS,  R.,  De  reditibus  templorum  graecorum.     1869. 
MARTHA,  ].,  Les  sacerdoces  athiniens.     1882. 
HERBRECHT,  H.,  De  sacerdotii  apud  Graecos  emptione  venditione. 

1885. 
LEHMANN,  B.,  De  titulis  ad  sacerdotiorum  apud  Graecos  venditionem 

pertinentibus.     1887. 

VON  LASAULX,  E.,  Die  Gebete  der  Griechen  und  Romer.     1842. 
Der  Fluch  bei  Griechen  und  Romer n.     1843. 


374  GREEK  RELIGION 

VON  LASAULX,  E.,  Der  Eid  bei  den  Griechen.     1844. 

Die  Siihnopfer  der  Griechen  und  Ronter,  1841. 

VOULLIEME,  E.,  Quomodo  -veteres  adoraverint.     1887. 

AUSFELD,  C.,  De  Graecorum  precationibus  quaestiones.     1903. 

DE  MOLIN,  A.,  De  ara  afiud  Graecos.     1884. 

REISCH,  E.,  "  Altar  "  in  Pauly-Wissowa,  Realencyclopaedie. 

STUDNICZKA,  F.,  Altdre  mit  Grubenkammern.     1903. 

BERNHARDI,  K.,  Das  Trankopfer  bei  Homer.     1885. 

VON  FRITZE,  H.,  De  libatione.     1893. 

Die  Rauchopfer  bei  den  Griechen.     1894. 

PETERSEN,  C.,  Der  Haiisgottesdienst  der  alien  Griechen.     1851. 

Ueber  die  Geburtstagsfeier  bei  den  Griechen.     1857. 

VON  WILAMOWITZ-MOELLENDORF,  U.,  Isyllos  von  Epidauros.     1886. 
SAMTER,  E.,  Familienfesle  der  Griechen  und  Romer.     1901. 
DEUBNER,  L.,  De  incubatione.     190x3. 

HOPF,  L.,  Die  Heilgotter  und  Heilstdtten  des  Allertums.     1904. 
HAMILTON,  M.,  Incubalion  or  the  Cure  of  Disease  in  Pagan  Temples 

and  Christian  Churches.     1906. 
SAINTE-CROIX,  Recherches  historiques  et  critiques  sur  les  mysteres  du 

paganisme.     Second  edition  by  de  Sacy.     1817. 
LOBECK,  C.  A.,  Aglaophamus  sive  de  theologiae  mysticae  Graecorum 

causis.     1829. 
ANRICHS,  G.,  Das  antike  Mysterienwesen  in  seinem  Einfluss  auf  das 

Christentum.     1894. 

(See  also  books  noted  above  under  "  local  cults  :  Eleusis.") 

Part  I,  Chap.  iii.     BOETTICHER,  C.,  Der  Baumkultus  der  Hellenen. 

1856. 
OVERBECK,  J.,  Das  Cultusobject  bei  den  Griechen  in  seinen  altesten 

Gestaltungen.     1864. 
DE  VISSER,  M.  W.,  Die  nicht  menschengestaltigen  Cotter  der  Griechen. 

1903. 

HILD,  J.  A.,  Etude  sur  les  demons.     1881. 
WASSNER,  J.,  De  heroum  apud  Graecos  cultu.     1883. 
GRASSE,  Der  Geister-  und  Gespensterglauben  im  klassischen  Alter- 

thum.     1856. 

Part  I,  Chap.  iv.     PERVANOGLU,  P.,  Die  Grabsteine  der  alten  Griechen. 

1863. 

LEHRS,  K.,  "  Vorstellungen  der  Griechen  iiber  da§  Fortleben  nach 
dem  Tode,"  in  Populdre  Aufsdtze  aus  dem  Alterthum.     1875. 


APPENDIX   III 


375 


DIETERICH,  A.,  Nekyia:  Beitrage  zur  Erkldrung  der  neuentdeckten 

Petrusapokalypse.     1 893 . 
DORSCH,  J.,  Ein  Beitrag  zur  Kenntniss  der  griechischen  Sepulcral- 

altertiimer.     1893. 
ROHDE,  E.,  Psyche  :  Seelencult  und  Unsterblichkeitsglaube  der  Grie- 

chen.     1894.     Second  edition,  1898. 
KAUFMANN,  C.  M.,  Die  Jenseitshoffnnngen  der  Griechen  und  Romer 

nach  den  Sepulcralinschriften.     1897. 

MILCHHOEFER,  A.,  Ueber  die  Grdberkiinst  der  Hellenen.     1899. 
DE  RIDDER,  A.,Z)e  fidee  de  la  mort  en  Grece  a  Fepoque  classique.   1 897. 
WHEELER,  B.  I.,  Dionysus  and  Immortality.     1899. 
HELBIG,  W.,  Zit  den  homerischen  Bestattungsgebrduchen.     1900. 
WEIL,  H.,  Etudes  sur  Vantiquite  grecque.     1900. 
WEICKER,  Der  Seelenvogel.     1902. 
ZEHETMAIER,  Leichenverbrennung  und  Leichenbestattung  im  alien 

Hellas,  1907. 

Part  II,  Chap.  i.  RIDGEW AY,  W.,Tfo  Early  Age  of  'Greece.   Vol.1,  1901. 
USENER,  H.,  Gotternamen:   Versuch  einer  Lehre  von  der  religiosen 

Begriffsbildung.     1 896. 

HARRISON,  J.  E.,  Prolegomena  to  the  Study  of  Greek  Religion.     1903. 
KERN,  O.,  Ueber  die  Anfdnge  der  hellenischen  Religion.     1902. 
BURROWS,  R.  M.,  The  Discoveries  in  Crete.     1907. 
LAGRANGE,  M.  J.,  La  Crete  ancienne.     1908. 

(See  also  the  reports  of  Cretan  excavations  in  the  Annual  of  the  British 
School  at  Athens  and  in  Monumenti  antlchi,  12-14,  Kendiconte  della  reale 
Accademia  de:  Lincei,  9-19,  and  Memorie  del  reale  Institute  Lombardo,  21.) 

Part  II,  Chap.  ii.     BUCHHOLZ,  E.,  "  Die  homerische  Gotterlehre  "  in 

Die  homerischen  Realien,  III.  i,  1884. 
SEYMOUR,  T.  D.,  Life  in  the  Homeric  Age.     1907.     (Chap,  xiv.) 

Part  II,  Chap.  iii.  RAPP,  A.,  Die  Beziehungen  des  Dionysoskultus  zu 
Thrakien  und  Kleinasien .  1 882. 

ROHDE,  E.,  Psyche:  Seelencult  und  Unsterblichkeitsglaube  der  Grie- 
chen. 1894,  2  ed.  1898. 

SITTL,  K.,  Dionysisches  Treiben  und  Dichten  im  7.  und  6.  Jahrhun- 
dert  v.  Chr.  1898. 

DIETERICH,  A.,  De  hymnis  orphicis.     1891. 

MA  AS.  E.,  Orpheus:  Untersuchungen  zur  griechischen,  romischen, 
altchristlichen  Jenseitsdichtung  und  Religion.  \  895 . 


376  GREEK   RELIGION 

Part  II,  Chap.  v.     DIELS,  H.,  Sibyllinische  Blatter.     1890. 

AUST,  E  ,  Die  Religion  der  R.nier.     1899. 

WISSOWA,  G.,  Religion  und  Kultus  der  Renter  in  I.  v.  Miiller,  Hand- 
bitch. 

HATCH,  E.,  The  Influence  of  Greek  Ideas  and  Usages  upon  the  Chris- 
tian Church.  1890. 

ANRICHS,  G.,  Das  antike  Mysterienwesen  in  seinem  Einfluss  auf  das 
Christentutn .  1 894 . 

WOBBERMIN,  G..  Religionsgeschichtliche  Studien  zur  Frage  der  Beein- 
flussung  des  Ur christen turns  durch  das  antike  Mysterienwesen. 
1896. 

Part  III,  Chap.  i.     CHARTERIUS,  V.,  Imagines  deorum  qui  ab  antiquis 

colebantur.     1581. 
DOEHLER,  Entstehung  und  Entwickelung  der  religiosen  Kunst  be:  den 

Griechen.     1874. 
KEKULE,  R.,  Ueber  die  Enstehung  der  Gotterideale  der  griechischen 

Kttnst.     1877. 
OVERBECK,  J.,  Ueber  die  Grundlagen  des  idealen  griechischen  Cotter  - 

bildes.     1875. 

Griechische  Kunstmythologic.     1871-1889. 

BRUNN,  H.,  Griechische  Gotterideale  in  ihren  Formen  erlautert.     1893. 
RUHLAND,  M.,  Die  eleusinischen  Gi.ttinnen,  1901. 

(See  also  the  chapters  on  cult  monuments  and  ideal  types  of  the  gods  in 
Farnell,  Cults  of  the  Greek  States,  1896  f.) 

Part  III,  Chap.  ii.     SCHMIDT,  L.,  Die  Ethik  der  alten  Griechen.    1882. 
CURTIUS,  E.,  Ueber  den  religiosen  Charakter  der  griechischen  Mtinzen. 

1869. 
SCHOLL,  R.,  Athenische  Festcommissionen.     1887. 

Part  III,  Chap.  iii.  GILOW,  H.,  Ueber  das  Verhaltniss  der  griechischen 
Philosophen  im  Allgemeinen  und  der  Vorsokratiker  im  besondern 
zur  griechischen  Volksreligion.  1876. 

E.  E.  G.,  The  Afakers  of  Hellas  :  A  critical  inquiry  into  the  philoso- 
phy and  religion  of  Ancient  Greece.  1903. 

CAIRD,  E.,  The  Evolution  of  Theology  in  the  Greek  Philosophers.    1 904. 


INDEX 


Achelous,  153. 

Acheron,  184. 

Adonis,  160;   worship  of,  276,  280. 

Aeacus,  182. 

Aegean  Islands,  worship  of  Isis  in,  277. 

Aegina,  353. 

Aegospotami,  43. 

Aeolians,  the,  215. 

Aeschines,  269. 

Aeschylus,  256,  307,  336;  worshipped  at  Gela, 
167. 

Aesculapius,  v.  Asclepius. 

Aetna,  cult  of  Hephaestus  at,  163. 

Aetolian  League,  the,  317. 

Agamemnon,  46,  340. 

Agathodaemon,  121. 

Agrae,  131,  351. 

agricultural  deities,  107  f. ,  146,  156,  185,  216, 
240  f.,  338,  353. 

agricultural  festivals,  76,  156,  195. 

agricultural  worship,  85,93,  IO3>  IIT>  I5I>  2O9> 
24°.  359- 

Alcamenes,  362. 

Alcibiades,  89,  263,  317. 

Alexander,  conquests  of,  273  f. ;  devoutness  of, 
279  f. ,  religious  policy,  280. 

Alexandria,  279,  280. 

all  souls,  feast  of,  158. 

Alpheius,  153. 

altar,  forms  of,  69  f.,  202;  earth  altar,  106; 
hearth  altar,  70;  mound  altar,  165;  pit  altar, 
202:  trench  altar,  165,  170. 

Amarynthus,  352. 

Amazons,  the,  161. 

Ammon,  oracle  of,  58. 

Amphiaraus,  166,  213. 

amphictyonies,  217,  317. 

Amphidromia,  the  121. 

Amphilytus,  57. 

Anaxagoras,  43,  262,  325,  327. 

Anaximander,  325. 

Anaximenes,  325. 

ancestors,  worship  of,  112, 181, 195,  228  f.,  313; 
as  Erinyes,  185. 

animals,  sacrifice  of  black,  106,  in,  154,  170, 
179;  dying  on  the  wav  to  altar,  45;  early 
worship  of,  196,  206;  for  sacrifice,  48,  100; 
pet,  brought  to  grave,  181.  sacred  to  indi- 
vidual gods,  112,  196;  substituted  for  men, 
105;  wild,  used  for  sacrifice,  152,  associated 
with  Artemig,  352  f. 

animism,  194. 

Anthela,  worship  of  Demeter  at,  218. 

Anthesteria,  the,  158,  179. 

anthropomorphism,  235,  254;  •v.gods,  human- 
ness  of. 

Antioch,  Greek  wors'.iip  at,  281. 


Antiochus  Epiphanes,  281. 

Antiphon,  265  i  ,  268. 

Antisthenes  (the  Cynic),  327. 

Apatouria,  the,  112,  162. 

Aphrodite,  cults  of,  160  f . ;  nature  of,  30,  160; 
origin,  160,  211;  —  Ouran.a,  104;  symbols 
of,  161. 

Apollo:  —  Agyieus,  121;  associated  with 
Artemis,  360  f . ;  cults  of,  151  f.,  217;  feast 
of,  at  Ithaca,  75;  god  of  flocks,  151,  211  god; 
of  hea  ing,  164;  Locust  Apollo,  the,  93;  — 
Lykeios,  211;  nature  of,  30,  151  f.,  211, 
236,  257;  oracle  at  Delphi,  152,  259;  purifi- 
cation, 240;  the  A  verier,  93;  the  Guardian, 
120;  spread  of  worship,  216;  worship  of, 
108;  at  Rome,  284,  285. 

apple,  symbol  of  Aphrodite,  161. 

Apuleius,  277. 

Arcadia,  cults  in,  159,  163. 

archaeological  discoveries,  193,  197  f. 

Archilochus,  233,  236. 

Areopagus,  the,  161,  182. 

Ares,  worship  of,  161. 

Arethusa,  354. 

Argos,  cults  of,  150,  155,  164. 

Aristaeus,  155. 

Aristophanes,  265. 

Aristotle,  52,  53,  272,  274,  323,  330  f. 

Arrian,  279. 

art.  and  religion,  148,  267  f.,  294  f.,  347,  362; 
development  of,  250  f. ;  at  Rome,  284  f. 

Artemis,  as  goddess  of  hunting,  352  f. ;  as 
moon  goddess,  152.  360;  associated  with 
Apollo,  360  f. ;  associated  with  Hecate,  360; 
—  Bendis,  127,351;  cults  of,  68,  145,160,349, 
351  f . ;  myths  of.  361  f. ;  nature  of,  33,  152 ; 
origin  of,  211,  350  f . ;  "  Persian,"  the,  209, 
352;  protector  of  maidens,  122;  worship  of, 
105,  108,  152,  351- 

Asclepiads  of  Tricca   the,  164. 

Asclepius,  associated  with  the  mysteries  at 
Eleutis,  13*,  164;  oracles  of,  58;  worshi  i 
of,  124  f.,  164;  at  Athens,  124,  270;  at 
Rome,  284. 

Asia  Minor,  migrations  to,  220;  effect  on 
poetry  of  Hesiod.  227;  rise  of  philosophy 
in,  234;  rites  adopted  from,  246. 

Asopus,  153. 

Aspasia,  262. 

asses,  used  for  sacrifice,  47,  155. 

associations,  religious,  v.  thiasoi. 

astrology,  43. 

Atalante,  352. 

Ate.  341. 

"  atheists,  the,"  327,  228 

Athena,  birth  of,  20;  birthday,  76;  contest 
with  Poseidon,  20;  cults  of,  21  f.,  23  note, 


377 


INDEX 


68,  150,162,  351;  nature  of,  150;  —Nike, 
150, 166,  316;  worship  at  Athens,  251  f.,  349. 

Athens,  supremacy  of,  250  f. 

athletic  contests,  96 f.,  114,  117  f.,  159,  239, 
256;  in  honor  of  dead,  176. 

Atossa,  45. 

Attis,  153,  276. 

Augustus,  Caesar,  285. 

authority,  religious,  26;  absence  of,  25. 

aversion,  rites  of,  v.  riddance,  rites  of. 

Babrius,  86. 

Bakchoi,  241. 

banquets,  occasion  of  the  epic,  220,  224. 

baptism,  a  Christian  "  initiation,"  291. 

barley-corns,  used  at  sacrifice,  100. 

Bassaroi,  241. 

bear-goddess,  196,  and  v.  Artemis. 

Bendis,  127,  271,  and  v.  Artemis,  cults  of. 

benefit  clubs,  religious  side  of,  127. 

Bible,  the,  as  oracle,  47. 

birds,  divination  by,  42,  44,  220, 224  ;  of  prey, 

Black  Sea,  the,  216. 

blood,  desire  of  souls  for,  171,  179:  use  of  in 

sacrifice,  98,  101,  103,  109,  112,  146. 
blood  vengeance,  240. 
Boeotia,  religion  in,  227  f.,  277. 
bones,  divination  by,  49. 
boys,  worship  by,  159,  and  v.  coming  of  age . 
Branchidae,  oracle  at,  58. 
Brasidas,  worship  of,  167. 
Brimo,  355. 
bucolic  hymns,  353. 
bull,  as   sacred  animal,  205,   243,   246;  bull 

hunts,  352. 

Cadmus,  165. 

cairns,  159. 

cakes,  used   in  worship,   103,  107,  no,  in, 

286,  352. 

Calauna,  worship  of  Poseidon  at,  154,  217. 
Callias,  56. 
Callinus,  232,  236. 
Callirhoe,  153. 
Callisto,  352. 

Calydonian  boar,  the,  92,  165. 
Cape  Colias,  cult  of  Aphrodite  at,  164. 
Cassandra,  57. 
Cassotis,  59. 
Castalian  spring,  59. 
Cato,  284. 
caves,  as  entrances  to  lower  world,  182;  as 

places  of  worship,  156,  160,  195,  200,  217. 
Cecrops,  112. 
Ceres,  283. 


Chalchas,  44,  54. 
Chalkeia,  the,  162. 


Charon,  174,  184,  287. 

childbirth,  rites  connected  with,  109,  112,  iai, 

161,  164,  354. 
children,  exposure  of,  307 ;  initiated  in  Eleu- 

sinian  mysteries,  122. 
Christianity,  and  art,  295 ;  and  Greek  religion, 

39,  281  f.,  285 f.;  and  Greek    philosophy, 

288  f.,  332;  and  Isis  worship,  278. 
Christian    saints,   supplanting    Greek    gods, 

286  f. 


Chryses,  66,  77,  340. 

Chrysippus,  275. 

chthonic  gods,  libations  to,  104;  worship  of, 

70,  89,  107,  181. 
Cimon,  53. 
Cinesias,  262. 
Circe,  223. 

cities,  development  of,  216  f.,  226,  231  f. 
Claus,  theory  of,  355. 
Clay,  used  in  purification,  no,  247. 
Cleanthes,  hymn  of,  332. 
Cleisthenes,  313. 
Clytaemnestra,  258,  342. 
Clytiadae,  56. 
Cnidos,  217. 
Cnossos,  202,  206  f. 
Codrus,  105. 
coins,  introduction  of,  230;  representation  of 

gods  on,  299,  318. 

colonies,  cults  in,  193;  spread  of,  216,  231. 
Colophon,  oracle  at,  58. 
Colossus  of  Rhodes,  the,  94. 
coming  of  age,  122,  152. 
commerce,  development  of,  230,  249,  314. 
communion  meal,  Q7f.,   102,  147,  214,  218  f., 

226 f.,  283. 
Corinth,  worship  of  Aphrodite  at,  161;  of  Isis 

at,  277. 

Coiybantes,  153. 
Cos,  worship  at,  124,  156. 
cosmogony,  138  f.  (v.  creation  of  world) ;  of 

Hesiod,  228,  324;  of  the  Orphic  sect,  245; 

of  philosophers,  324  f. 
cosmopolitan  spirit,  266;   effect  on  religion, 

274. 

Couretes,  the,  149. 
creation  of  world,  34,  138. 
cremation,  171,  176  f.,  225. 
Creon,  105,  258,  341. 
Crete,    Christian    legends    in,    286:    cult   of 

Dicty nna,  166,  352;  cult  of  Eileithyia,  164; 

discoveries  in,  i8q,  193,  I97_f.;  influence  on 

Greece,  191,  244,  246;  religion  of  early  in- 
habitants, 198  f. 
Crisaean  plain,  the,  67. 
Critias,  327. 
Croesus,  60,  343. 
Cronus,  138; — Uranus,  228. 
Croton,  248. 
crow,  45. 
curse,  89. 
Cybele,  153. 
Cyclades,  the,  287. 
Cylonidae,  the,  in. 
Cyprus,  cult  of  Aphrodite  at,  160;  cult  of  Isis 

at,  276. 

Cyrene,  216,  353;  cult  of  Asclepius  at,  164. 
Cyrus,  46. 

van  Dale,  63. 

Danaus,  daughters  of,  239. 

dance,  the,  as  form  of  worship,  160,  283,  353, 

360. 

Daphne,  myth  of,  281. 
days,  lucky,  228. 
dead,  the,  burial  of,  169  and  v.  funeral  rites; 

offerings  to,  177  f.,  199,    (modern)   287  f. ; 

prophetic  powers  of,  169;  sacrifice  to,  170, 


INDEX 


379 


199;  worship  of,  107,  146,  165,  167,  169,  199, 
225,  227. 

deification  of  emperors,  167. 

Delos,  96,  162,  360;  Apollo  worship  at,  217; 
cult  of  Eileithyia  at,  164. 

Delphi,  congress  of  states  at,  115;  festivals, 
76;  games,  97,  115,  152,  239;  worship  of 
Dionysus,  159;  worship  of  Hestia,  163.- 

Delphic  oracle,  the,  corruption  0^64;  genu- 
ineness of,  60,  63,  259;  influence  for  prog- 
ress, 63,  64,  231;  origin  of,  242;  quoted  by 
Herodotus,  60;  subjects  of,  62,  239. 

Demeter,  —  Chthonia,  166  ;  cults  of,  156; 
Homeric  hymn  to,  134;  — Isis,  277;  myth  of, 
135;  nature  of,  33,  156;  patron  of  bakers 
and  millers,  156;  worship  of,  108,  129 f., 
156, 229, 237, 241,  255;  worship  at  Rome,  283. 

democracy,  the  Athenian,  249,  252  f. 

Democritus,  261,  325. 

Demosthenes,  85,  267 f,  319. 

departmental  gods,  195. 

Despoina,  354. 

Diagoras,  262,  328. 

Diasia,  the,  103,  in,  149,  326,  240. 

Dickinson,  G.  Lowes,  38. 

Dicte,  Mt.,  200. 

Dictynna,  166,  352. 

Dike,  309,  324. 

Dindymon,  Mt.,  153. 

Dio  Chrysostom,  305. 

Diomedes,  221. 

Dionysia,  the,  157,  164,  268. 

Dionysus,  associated  with  Demeter  at  Eleusis, 
132  f.,  243;  cults  of,  157  f.,  162;  god  of  souls, 
158;  myths  of,  242 f.;  second  birth,  21: 
spirit  of  growth,  30;  types  of  in  art,  301; 
worship  of,  105, 107, 132, 237,2401.,  251,  316, 
339 ;  worship  at  Rome,  283 :  worship  intro- 
duced in  Greece,  186  f.,  229,  230,  241  f. ; 
—  Zagreus,  245. 

Dioscuri,  worshipped  at  Tusculum,  282 

divination,  before  battle,  50;  by  sacrificial 
victims,  47. 

"divine  government,"  34,  141,  236,  335;  and 
natural  law,  311. 

Dodona,  oracle  of,  58, 87 ;  priestesses  of,  57, 260 

dog  days,  155. 

dogma,  absence  of,  25,  29,  322;  and  myth,  17, 
21 ;  Christian,  289. 

dogs,  sacred  to  Hecate,  112,  361 ;  used  in 
sacrifice,  112,  161,  170. 

dolls,  offered  at  graves,  181;  use  of  at  the 
Dionysia,  157. 

Dorians,  the,  194,  200,  215,  218. 

double  axes,  shrine  of,  202,  205;  a  sacred 
symbol,  205. 

doves,  44,  112,  205,  207. 

drama  as  worship,  the,  97,  157  f ,  252,  256, 
283,  295,  297. 

dreams,  51,  54,  144,  224,  269;  "gates  of,"  51 ; 
gods  appear  in,  52;   interpretation  of,  52  f. ; 
treatises  on,  52;  dream  oracles,  58. 
drinking  contests,  158. 

eagle,  44,  45,  52,  196. 

earth  goddess,  195,  197,  361;  and  v.  mother- 
goddess. 
Easter,  the  Greek,  288. 


:<lucation,  development  of,  263,  266  f. 

Egypt,  193,  197. 

Eileithyia,  164,  354;  and  St.  Eleutherius,  286. 

Elaphebolia,  352. 

Eleusis,  93;  the  mysteries  at,  128  f.,  156; 
mysteries,  officials  of,  131;  origin  of,  187. 

Eleutherae,  157. 

Empedocles,  261,  325  f. 

Eos,  104. 

epic,  the,  and  Greek  philosophy,  323;  con- 
trasted with  actual  belief,  144,  221 ;  date  of, 
210,  216,  218  f. ;  influence  of,  42,  139,  210, 
214,  220  f.,  234  f.,  254,362;  joyfulness  of, 
225;  language  of,  218  f. ;  pessimism  of,  168 ; 
rationalistic  tendency  of,  226;  sacrifice  in, 
98,  222 

Epicteta,  honors  after  death,  167. 

Epicureans,  the,  275,  331. 

Epicurus,  honors  after  death,  167. 

Epidaurus,  124  f.,  164,  270. 

Epimenides,  HI,  244. 

epithet  names  of  gods,  origin  of,  68,  145,  166, 
235.  356:  representing  hero-cults,  166,  213, 
358  n. 

equinox,  195. 

Erechtheus,  112. 

Erigone,  137. 

Erinyes  (Eumenides),  104,  107,  146,  185,  228, 
264 ;  origin  of,  107,  309. 

Eros,  228,  324. 

ethical  philosophy  and  religion,  274  f. 

Etruscans,  Greek  cults  among  the,  282. 

Eubouleus,  HI. 

Euhemerus,  327. 

Eumaeus,  98. 

Eumenides,  v.  Erinyes. 

Eumolpidae,  the,  79,  89, 131. 

Euripides,  263  f. 

Evans,  Arthur,  197. 

evil  spirits,  146,  196. 

expiation  for  sin,  343. 

family,  worship  by,  313,  and  v.  home,  wor- 
ship of. 

fasting,  132,  156. 

fate,  54,  140,  310. 

festivals,  religious,  96,  112  f.,  157  f.,  295,  and 
v.  especially  Pt.  I,  chap.iiiandApp.il; 
agricultural,  76,  156;  in  early  times,  75, 
195;  political  importance  of,  114,  232,  238, 
268;  torch,  160. 

feudalism,  216,  220. 

fire,  for  sacrifice,  too;  gods  of,  162  f.,  211. 

first  fruits,  offering  of,  85,  93. 

flocks,  gods  of,  36,  151,  154,  159,  353.  358. 

flowers  used  in  worship,  69,  103,  158. 

food,  offered  to  the  dead,  179. 

foreign  gods,  brought  by  immigration,  216: 
worship  of,  127,  128,  192,  266,  271,  275  f., 
316,  351. 

fruits,  used  in  worship,  69,  103,  121,  158.  353. 

funeral  rites,  166,  173  f.,  banquet,  178;  laws 
controlling,  176. 

future  life,  186  f. ;  early  belief  in,  198;  epic 
view  of,  171;  Socrates's  view  of,  173. 

Gaia  (Ge),  138,  152,  184;  nature  of,  33;  wor- 
ship, 152  f. 


38o 


INDEX 


Galen,  124. 

gall  bladder,  divination  by,  49. 

garments  used  by  worshippers,  100. 

Gelo,  worship  of,  167. 

Genesia,  the,  179. 

Genetyllides,  164. 

Glauce,  165. 

Glaucus,  63,  154. 

Gnostic   sect,  the,  278. 

goats,  used  in  sacrifice,  99,  105. 

gods,  the,  as  ideals  of  beauty,  33;  as  indi- 
viduals, 142  f. ;  as  righteous  rulers,  34,  232, 
310,  348;  assembly  of,  140;  blood  kinship 
with  men,  41,  257,  313;  fickleness  of,  146; 
held  up  to  ridicule,  42,  221,  265;  human- 
ness  of,  19,  32,  141,  147,  221  f.,  235  f ,  300, 
337;  limitations  of,  143;  moral  nature  of, 
19,  255,  264,  308  f.,  337;  not  the  forces  of 
nature,  139,  323;  of  myth  and  of  worship, 
18,  211  f. ;  philosophical  interpretation  of, 
325;  providence  of,  140  f.;  relations  to  one 
another,  34,  142;  social  relations  with  men, 
34 f.,  98,  349. 

goose,  44. 

Gournia,  202,  206,  208. 

grain  goddess  (v.  Demrter),  156,  187,  354. 

Greeks,  the,  a  religious  people,  14;  as  ideal- 
ists, 32,  304;  religious  needs  of,  37,  347  f. 

Greek  religion,  a  matter  of  daily  life,  30,  35, 
337;  and  Christianity,  39,  282,  385  f.,  345; 
at  Rome,  282  f. ;  attitude  toward  nature,  32, 
138  f.;  influence  on  later  thought,  15:  mnny 
sided,  35;  methods  of  investigation,  192: 
origin  of,  29,  212;  periods  of,  1 88  f. ;  sprc.id 
of  in  the  East,  281. 

Hides,  107,  135,  136  (and  v.  Plutus) ;  cult  at 
Rome,  284;  "  marriage  to,"  288;  realm  of, 
172,  182. 

Hagia  Triada,  202,  203,  206. 

hair,  an  offering,  122,  123. 

Halieia,  the,  154. 

Halitherses,  44. 

Haloia,  the,  156. 

Halyattes,  60. 

Harrison,  J.  E.,  226. 

harvest  festivals,  156;  v.  agricultural  festi- 
vals. 

hawk,  44,  45. 

healing,  gods  of,  163  f. ;  rites  of,  124. 

heaven-god,  195,  196,  209  f,  and  v.  Zeus. 

heavenly  bodies,  the  worship  of,  154  f. 

Hebrew  religion,  97;  meat  offering,  100. 

Hecabe,  92. 

Hecate,  107,  112,  352,  360  f . ;  worship  of,  152. 

hecatomb,  100. 

Hegesistratus,  46. 

Helenus,  54. 

Helios,  anger  of,  342  ;  cults  of,  154  ;  daily 
worship  of,  85  ;  offerings  to,  104  ;  temple  of, 
66. 

Hellen,  315. 

Hellenism,  spread  of  in  East,  273  f.,  281  f. ;  in 
Rome,  284  f. 

henotheistic  worship,  24. 

Hephaesteia,  the,  162. 

Hephaestus,  139,  151,  163,  an  ;  patron  of 
smiths,  162. 


Hera,   marriage  of,   21;    nature  of,  33,  150; 

identified  with  Isis,  277. 
Heracleitus,  234,  261,  325  f. 
Heracles,  127,  194,  239. 
Hercules,  worship  at  Rome,  282  f. 
Hermaia,  the,  159 
Hermes,  in,  121,  159;  as  chthonic  god,  107; 

as  Mercury,  283;  conductor  of  souls,  158?., 

179;   functions  of,  159,  349;   of  Praxiteles, 

3°5-. 
Hermione,  worship  at,  156,  277;    precinct  of 

Pluto  at,  184. 

herms,  159;  mutilation  of,  255,  343. 
Herodotus,  259 f.,  336. 
heroes,  relics  of,  165. 
heron,  44. 

Herophilus,  on  dreams,  53. 
hero-worship,  107,  146,  164  f.,  181,  213,   227, 

229;  origin  of,  107,  165  f.;  perpetuation  of, 

288. 
Hesiod,  writings  of,  227  f.,  234,  244,  261,  310, 

324- 

Hestia,  73,  195;  worship  of,  120,  163. 
Hierapolis,  184. 
Hippo,  328. 
Hippocrates,  124. 
Hippodameia,  shrine  of,  67  note. 
Hippon,  262. 
Hipponax,  233. 
home,  the,  worship  of,  103, 120  f.,  313;  deities 

of,  162,  163. 

Homeric  hymns,  232;  to  Demeter,  20. 
Homeric  poems,  the,  v.  epic, 
honey-cake,  used  in  burial,  174. 
honey,  in  Christian  ritual,  291;    in  libations, 

104,  170,  180:  in  the  Greek  mysteries,  291. 
horns  of  consecration,  202,  204  f. 
horses,  used  for  sacrifice,  154,  155. 
horsemanship,  gods  of,  154,  161. 
human  sacrifice,  105,  109,  no,  155,  161,  170, 

213,307. 

Hygieia,  151:  as  Isis,  277. 
Hymen,  123 

hymns  in  worship,  84,  132,  233. 
hypnotism,  60. 
Hypsenor,  76. 

lacchus.  132,  187,  243. 
lamidae,  56. 
laso,  126. 
Icarus,  243. 

Ida,  Mt.,  shrine  on,  66,  200. 
idealism  in  Greece,  32. 
Iliad,  date  of,  210;  and  v.  epic, 
Ilium,  Alexander  at,  279. 

images  of  the  gods,  70,  120,  132,  134,  150,  158, 
164,  283;  and  the  development  of  art,  296; 
cult  images,  73  f.,  157;  identified  with  the 
gods  themselves,  302;  in  the  Mycenaean 
age,  207 

mitative  rites,  146,  150.  159,  196,  339. 
mmortality,   53,  129,  136,   169,  i86f. ;    early 

belief  in,  182,  198 

mpiety,  charges  of,  262  f.,  and  v.  sacrilege, 
ncantation,  170. 
ncense,  103. 

ndividualism,  262,  266  f.,  314,  320;  rise  of, 
230  f. 


INDEX 


initiations,  Eleusinian,  132;   Orphic,  246;  to 

mysteries  of  Isis,  278. 
Ino,  257. 

Ino-Leucothea,  154. 
inspiration,   40,   51,    144,    146;    frenzied,   56, 

241  f. ;  varieties  of,  51. 
intellectualism  at  Athens,  261  f. 
interpretation  of  religious  rites,  28;  of  signs, 

47,  54- 
lo,  277. 

lobakchoi,  128. 
Ion,  315. 
Ionia,   burial   in,   172;    philosophy   in,   324: 

poetry  of,  233 ;  religion  of,  194. 
lonians,  215. 
Iphigeneia,  105,  354. 
Isis,  worship  of,  275  f. 
Isocrates,  188,  307. 

Isthmus,  games  at  the,  97,  115,  154,  239. 
Italy,  254;  Greek  cults  in,  282. 
Ixion,  punishment  of,  257. 

Jason,  moral  qualities  of,  257, 
Julius  Caesar,  285. 

Kabeirion,  70. 
Kalligeneia,  354. 
Kerykes,  79. 
Kottyto,  271. 
kykeon,  135,  135. 
Kynophontis,  155. 

Laconia,  353. 

Laius,  341. 

Lampon,  43. 

laurel  of  Apollo,  59,  283. 

Lebadeia,  oracle  at,  58. 

lectisternium,  the,  283. 

lekythoi,  180. 

lesser  spirits,  worship  of,  18. 

Lemnos,  162. 

Lenaea,  the,  157. 

Leto,  33.  360- 

Leucas,  worship  at,  105. 

Libanius,  105. 

libation,  103  f.,  no,  120,  219;  at  a  sacrifice, 
101;  atOpis,  279;  in  the  epic,  222;  of  milk, 
104;  to  the  dead,  180;  wineless,  161,  196. 

Liber,  283. 

Libera,  283. 

lightning,  v.  thunderbolt. 

Lindos,  shrine  on,  81. 

Linus  song,  the,  155. 

lions,  208. 

literature,  decay  of,  267. 

liver,  divination  by  the,  49. 

Livius  Andronicus,  285 

local cults,22f.,  145, 166,  191,  210 f.,  315,351  f.  I 
affected  by  migration,  216,  357;  "conden- 
sation" of,  212,  226,  356  f. ;  established  at 
Athens,  217;  mutually  exclusive,  24. 

local  shrines,  the,  22,  65;  independence  of, 
23;  influence  of  Delphi  on,  63 

logos,  the,  290. 

Lord's  Suoper,  the,  a  "  mystery,"  aga. 

lots,  casting  of,  224. 

Loxias,  parchments  of,  57. 

Lycaeus,  Mt.,  149. 


Lycurgus,  317. 

lyric  contests,  164. 

lyric  poetry,  pessimism  of,  936;  rise  of,  933, 

i  29-7'      u 
Lysimachus,  52. 

Machaon,  124. 

maenads,  159. 

magic,  35,  89,  124,  146,  155, 195,  223,  226. 

manumission  of  slaves,  82. 

Marathon,  99,  359. 

Maron,  66,  76. 

marriage,  gods  of,  35,  121, 123,  150,  161 ;  rites 

connected  with,  109,  no,  113,  120,  132  f., 

'53,  352,  354- 
Marseilles,  216. 
meat  offering  of  Hebrews,  100. 
Megara,  worship  at,  156. 
Melampus,  56,  244. 
Meros,  Mt. ,  Alexander  at,  279. 
Metagyrtes,  153. 
meteorological  phenomena,  42. 
Metis,  228. 

middle  ages,  the  Greek,  215  f. 
migrations,  the  great,  193,  212,  215,  357. 
Miltiades,  worship  of,  167. 
Mimnermus,  236. 
Minoan  civilization,  197,  200  f. 
Minima  female  divinity,  209. 
Minos,  182,  198. 
Mithras,  worship  of,  276. 
Mnemosyne,  104. 
Moira,  141,  323;  \.fate. 
monotheism,  254,  256,  290,  326,  334  f. 
moon-goddess,  360,  361. 
moral  ideals,  Greek  conception  of,  306 f.,  312; 

growth  of,  236  f.,  255  f;  personification  of, 

337  f- 

moral  order  of  world,  308  f. 

mother-goddess,  the,  152,  209,  355,  359;  vari- 
ous forms  of,  211. 

mother  of  the  gods,  the,  103,  127,  275  f. 

mountain  tops,  as  seats  of  worship,  195,  217. 

mourning  customs,  174,  179. 

murder,  penalty  for,  307;  purification  for, 
109,  no,  239,  311,  344. 

muses,  the,  87,  127. 

music  at  sacrifice,  101. 

musical  contests,  at  religious  festivals,  20, 
114,  115,  256. 

Mycale,  46,  154,  217. 

Mycenaean  age,  the;  burial  in,  177;  civiliza- 
tion of,  196  f  ;  definition  of,  198;  religion 
in,  169. 

Myconps,  185. 

mysteries,  tl.e,  227;  name,  meanine  of,  131. 

mysteries  at  Eleusis,  122,  128  f. ;  initiation  for, 
132;  origin  of,  187:  preparation  for,  132; 
significance  of,  135 f. I  the  "lesser  mys- 
teries," 131  f. 

mysteries  of  Isis,  278. 

mysteries  perpetuated  in  Christianity,  290  f. 

mysticism,    145    f.,     223,    244   f.,    250,    263, 

339- 

mythology  and  religion,  13  f.,  16,  143,  185, 
191,  301;  and  the  poets,  265  f. ,  298:  and 
the  spread  of  Gnek  religion,  281;  ai  Rome, 
285. 


INDEX 


myths,  and  dogma,  17,  21,  306,  322  ;  and 
philosophy,  17°,  at  religious  festivals,  19  f. ; 
contrasted  with  worship,  221,  307,  322,  351; 
criticism  of,  228,  233  f.,  256  f.,  259,  326;  defi- 
nition of,  17;  derived  from  ritual,  18,  21, 
149  f.,  157,  161 ;  explaining  local  rites,  20; 
flexibility  of,  191 ;  modifying  belief,  21,  143, 
362. 

names,  historical  study  of,  194,  213,  352. 

natural  phenomena,  deification  of,  29;  wor- 
ship of,  30. 

nature,  attitude  of  Greeks  toward,  32,  138 f.; 
spiritual  forces  in,  30,  195,  242  ;  under 
direction  of  gods,  47,  140,  310. 

Nemea,  games  at,  97,  115,  239. 

Nemesis,  324. 

neoplatomsts,  the,  332. 

Neptune,  283. 

Nicias,  43. 

Nike,  v.  Athena  Nike. 

nymphs,  associated  with  Artemis,  358;  wor- 
ship of,  66,  104,  153. 

oath,  90,  311,  317. 

Oceanus>  323. 

Oedipus,  258,  312,  341. 

Oenomaus,  161. 

Olympiad  named  for  victor,  118. 

Olympias,  280. 

Olympic  games,  97, 115,  liyf.,  239. 

omens,  39,  54,  102,  aigf.,  226,  269,  319  (and 
v.  signs). 

omphalos,  the,  239. 

Onchestos,  217. 

Onetor,  66,  76. 

Opis,  banquet  at,  279. 

oracles,  51,  58 f.;  collections  of  ancient,  57; 
dream  oracles,  58;  false  (or  counterfeit), 
57;  of  Bacis,  57:  ofGlanis,  57;  of  Musaeus, 
57;  of  the  Sibyl,  57 ;  soul  oracles,  184;  ven- 
ders of,  264  f. 

orators,  of  4th  century,  268  f. 

ordeal,  the,  91. 

Orestes,  worshipped  as  a  hero,  166. 

organization  of  religion,  45. 

orgiastic  worship,  153,  159,  186,  241  f. 

origin  of  man,  138,  245. 

Oropus,  213;  oracle  at,  58. 

Orpheus,  244. 

Orphic  sect,  the,  i8.j  230,  344!,  249,  251  f.; 
revival  of,  270  f. 

Orphic  writings,  the,  244. 

Ouranos,  138. 

owl,  196. 

Paieon,  124. 

Paionia,  the,  151. 

palace  shrine,  66,  200,  202  f. 

Palaemon,  154. 

Pan,  worship  of,  159,  316. 

Panaceia,  126. 

Panathenaea,  the,  24  (fig.),  96, 100, 114  f.,  150, 

239,  268. 
Pandion,  112. 
Pandora,  228. 
Parmenides,  325. 
parsley,  use  of,  47. 


Parthenon,  72,  256;  a  Christian  church,  286. 

Patrae,  359. 

patriotism,  236,  253;  decay  of,  266  f.,  274. 

Patroclus,  the  soul  of,  169. 

patron  deities,  of  clubs,  127;  of  the  cities,  359. 

peasant  worship,  240,  and  v.  agricultural 
worship. 

Peiraeus,  the,  foreign  cults  at,  271,  275. 

Peisistratus,  188,  238,  255,  303. 

Pelopidas,  43. 

Peloponnesian  War,  the,  260  f. 

Penelope,  52. 

Pentheus,  243. 

Pergamon,  altar  at,  70;  worship  of  Asclepius 
at,  164. 

Pericles,  piety  of,  86,  303. 

perjury,  91. 

Persephone,  107,  in,  131,  156,  184;  associ- 
ated with  Demeter,  v.  mysteries  ;  myth  of, 
135;  nature  of,  184;  worshipped  at  Rome, 
283. 

Persian  wars,  the,  249  f. 

Phaeacians,  the,  temple  of,  66. 

Phaestos,  202. 

Phanes,  245. 

Pheidias,  262 ;  gods  of,  33. 

Phigaleia,  temple  at;  93,  362. 

Philip,  religious  policy  of,  280. 

Philoctetes,  258. 

philosophy,  Greek,  antagonism  with  religion, 
271  f. ;  at  Athens,  250  f  ,  263,  326  f. ;  defin- 
ing the  nature  of  God,  289  f.,  326;  influence 
on  Christianity,  288  f.,  330;  of  religion,  142, 
250,  328  f. ;  rise  of,  232,  234  f. 

Phocis,  352. 

Phrygia,  244,  246. 

Phrygian  Mother,  the,  276. 

physical  objects,  worship  of,  30. 

pigs,  used  in  sacrifice,  98,  no,  HI,  112,  132, 
156. 

pillars,  sacred,  73, 205, 206, 235  (and  v.  herms) . 

Pindar,  21,  53,  186,  256,  307,  347;  t.fcl 

plague,  the,  105,  124,  343;  purification  from, 

HI. 

Plataea,  battle  of,  50. 

Plato,  and  the  poets,  307,  347:  belief  in 
dreams,  53;  belief  in  immortality,  187;  doc- 
trine of  the  Supreme  Being,  272,  330;  influ- 
enced by  Orphic  doctrines,  271;  philosophy 
of,  328  f  ;  worshipped,  167. 

ploughing,  sacred,  156. 

Pluto-Hades,  184  f. ;  Pluto-Scrapis,  280. 

Plutus,  121,  126,  130. 

Polemaenetus,  55  note. 

Polycrates,  53,  109. 

Polydeuces,  257. 

Polygnotus,  305. 

Polyxena,  105. 

portents,  stories  of,  43. 

Poseidon,  cults  of,  154,  217;  —  Erechtheus, 
166;  nature  of,  30,  211;  patron  of  horse- 
manship, 154;  worship  of,  100,  108. 

prayer,  83  f. ;  at  meals,  84;  in  literature,  85; 
instances  of,  86,  no,  269,  279,  348;  in  the 
epic,  223. 

prayer  hymn;  84,  88. 

Praxiteles,  268,  362. 

pre-Mycenaean  age,  189,  198, 


INDEX 


383 


priesthood,  not  organized,  78,  322  ;  of  Isis, 
278. 

priests,  76  f.,  no;  appointment  of,  79,  316; 
attendants  of,  76;  duties  of,  67,  82;  families 
of,  79  ;  payment  of,  79  ;  qualifications  of, 
78,  81;  titles  of,  81. 

processions,  96,  114,  157,  218,  283. 

Prodicus,  327. 

Proerosia,  the,  287. 

Prometheia,  the,  163. 

Prometheus,  44,  52,  163. 

prophecy,  a  trade,  55,  57;  epic  conception 
of,  55- 

prophets,  54. 

propitiatory  rites,  50,  1051.,  227;  not  men- 
tioned in  the  epic,  106  ;  occasion  of,  106, 
146,  239;  origin  of,  109;  ritual  of,  io6f 

Protagoras,  327. 

Proteus,  223. 

Protogonos,  245. 

Psamathe,  155. 

Ptolemies,  the,  277,  380, 

Ptolemy  Lagi,  280. 

Punic  war,  the,  284. 

purification,  105,  109 f.,  146,  239  (and  v.  pro- 
pitiatory rites);  after  childbirth,  121;  cere- 
mony ofiiio;  ofpublicplaces.no;  Orphic, 
247;  significance  of,  in,  343. 

Pythagoras,  247  f. ,  326. 

Pythian  games,  v.  Delphi. 

Pythian  priestess,  the,  46,  57,  59,  339. 

rain-god,  v.  Zeus,  the  sky-god. 

ram,  used  in  purification,  no,  159. 

rationalistic  tendencies,  41,  223,  225  f.,  261, 
264,  305. 

religion,  and  beauty,  33,  295,  304,  320;  and 
ethics,  306  f. ;  and  morality,  33,  307  f. ;  and 
philosophy,  271  f.,  274,  322  f . ;  and  poetry, 
232,  256  f. ,  304;  and  the  state,  25,  238,  250  f., 
315  f.;  comparative,  16;  is  there  a  Greek? 
13,  349;  of  gladne-s,  14,  35,  225;  personal 
vs.  state,  128;  relation  to  other  phases  of 
civilization,  190,  238,  250  f.,  267,  294  f., 
356  f. ;  study  of,  27 ;  ultimate  factors  to- 
day, 13;  what  it  meant  to  the  Greek,  29, 
222,  294,  338.  345  f. 

religious  r  tual,  purpose  of,  35. 

retribution  after  death,  182,  257. 

revelation,  Greek  conception  of,  39,  144. 

revival  of  religion  in  seventh  century,  186, 
330  f. 

Rhadamanthus,  182. 

Rhea,  138,   149,   152,  209;   Rhea-Cybele,  153. 

Rheneia,  360. 

Rhodes,  worship  at,  105,  154,  276. 

riddance,  rites  of,  TOO,  170,  196,  224,  338. 

ritual,  persistence  of,  191,  227,  286  f. 

river  gods,  107,  108,  150,  153,  354. 

roads,  god  of,  159,  361. 

Roman  gods,  worshipped  with  Greek  rites, 
284. 

Roman  religion,  influenced  by  Greek,  281  f. 

Rome,  power  of,  281 ;  Greek  gods  at,  283. 

Rumor,  46. 

Sabazius,  128,  241. 
Saboi,  241. 


l  sacred  graves,  66,  165. 

sacred  pillars,  v.  pillars. 

sacred  places,  65. 

sacred  times,  74  f.  and  v.  seasons  of  worship. 

sacrifice,  animals  used  for,  100;  at  Rome, 
283;  banquet  sacrifice  (sacrificial  meal),  v. 
communion  meal ;  before  battle,  98;  Greek 
theory  of,  102;  household,  98;  in  time  of 
danger,  49;  occasions  of,  98;  purificatory, 
v.  propitiatory  rites;  religious  motive  of, 
102;  ritual  ofjioof. ;  to  heroes,  165 ;  types 
of,  28,  IQI  ;  victims,  rites  of  slaughter,  98, 
101 ;  without  blood,  196;  wood  used  for,  100. 

sacrilege,  cases  of,  in,  255,  316. 

sailors,  god  of,  161,  349. 

Salamis,  battle  of,  105,  251;  worship  of 
Artemis  at  victory,  359. 

salvation,  345. 

Samos,  150. 

Samothrace,  shrine  on,  70. 

sanctuary,  right  of,  71,  311. 

Sappho,  233. 

Sarpedon,  140. 

Sceptics,  the,  275,  331 ;  their  view  of  religion, 
319- 

science,  at  Athens,  263. 

Scillus,  worship  of  Artemis  at,  352. 

sculpture,  252,  296  f.  (v.  art). 

sea-gods,  107,  146,  154,  211. 

seasons  of  worship,  113,  157  f. ,  195,  and  v. 
festivals. 

seers,  50,  226,  339;  families  of,  56;  of  the 
army,  55. 

oelene,  104,  277. 

Seleucidac,  the,  religious  policy  of,  280. 

Semele,  245,  257. 

Semitic  gods,  195 ;  Semitic  religion,  340. 

Serapis,  276  f.,  280. 

SJbyl,  the,  57,  339;  the  Cumaean,  282. 

Sibylline  books,  the,  282  f. 

sibyls,  243. 

Sicily,  216. 

signs,  classification  of,  39  f. ;  divination  by, 
40  f.,  54,  224,  339;  in  the  course  of  nature, 
42,  44  f. ;  in  the  epic,  144;  science  of,  40. 

Simonides,  236. 

sin,  conception  of,  340 f. ;  taint  of,  239,  343 f. 

Sinope,  Pluto  cult  from,  280. 

Sirius,  155. 

Skirophoria,  the,  240. 

slave  labor,  230. 

sleep,  the  soul  in,  53. 

snakes,  sacred,  209;  ia  hero-worship,  165. 

sneeze,  as  omen,  47. 

social  relation  of  gods  and  men,  34,  37,  and  v. 
gods. 

Socrates,  86,  173,  188.  a6a,  328. 

Solon,  232,  236,  354,  310,  317. 

solstice,  worship  at  the,  157,  159,  195. 

soothsayers,  wandering,  55. 

Sophists,  the,  philosophy  of,  253,  262  f.,  266, 
327  f . :  rise  of,  260. 

Sophocles,  258  f  ;  introduced  worship  of  As- 
clepius,  164;  view  of  future  life,  187  f. 

soul,  the,  Greek  conception  of,  181,  186,  225: 
immortality  of,  53, 129,  136,  169  f.,  249;  Or- 
phic doctrine  of,  245,  247;  transmigration 
of,  246,  248. 


3«4 


INDEX 


soul  oracles,  184. 

souls,  epic  conception  of,  168,  225;  gods  of, 
156,  158,  179,  182;  power  for  evil,  170;  re- 
turn of,  158;  worship  of,  107,  146,165, 169  f., 
178  f . ;  and  v.  dead,  worship  of. 

sparrow,  44. 

Sparta,  218,  232,  352;  cult  of  Eileithyia  at,  164. 

Spercheius,  66,  153. 

springs,  worship  at,  153,  196,  354,  360. 

state  control  of  religion,  25,  82,  238,  250,  254  f., 
263,  315 1. 

state,  worship  by  the,  112  f.,  147  f.,  249,  346. 

Stesichorus,  233. 

Stoics,  the,  40,  275,  331  f.,  355. 

strangers,  the  gods  of,  149,  185,  311. 

Styx,  the,  91. 

suicide,  epidemic  of,  243. 

sulphur,  used  in  purification,  no. 

superstition,  269,  339,  349;  absence  of,  43, 
173;  in  Boeotia,  228. 

surgical  operations,  124. 

symbols  of  the  gods,  animals  as,  196. 

synthesis  of  cults,  212  f.,  266,  356;  v.  local 
cults,  "  condensation  "  of, 

taboo,  on  food,  81,  247. 

Taenaron,  184. 

taint  of  evil,  no. 

Tanagra,  93,  in,  159. 

Tantalus,  257. 

Tarentum,  155. 

Taygete,  353 

Taygetus,  Mt.,  155. 

Tegea,  cults  at,  78,  163,  164. 

Teiresias,  45,  54,  56,  170. 

Teisaraenus,  56,  60. 

Telemachus,  92,  309. 

Telemus,  54. 

telesterion,  the,  130. 

temples,  70 f.,  238,  252;  and  the  development 

of  architecture,  297 ;  as  treasuries,  71,  317  f. : 

at   Rome,  283;    income  of,  67;    officials  of, 

82;  property  of,  67,  96,  316;  statue  in,  238. 
Tethys,  323. 
Tetrapohs,  the,  217. 
Thales,  234,  323,  325. 
Thalysia,  the,  at  Cos,  156. 
thank  offering,  87,  93,  99. 
Thargelia,  the,  in,  151,  240. 
Theano,  76. 
Themis,  228,  309,  324. 
Theognis,  230,  233,  236,  254,  310. 
theology,  and  philosophy,  26 ;  Christian,  289  f. , 

340;  in  Greek  religion,  17;  of  Plato,  329^; 

of  the  Orphic  sect,  244;    of  the  poets,  26; 

contrasted  with  myths,  18. 
theophany,  in  the  Homeric  poems.  40 f.,  144; 

types  of,  41. 

Thermopylae,  Demeter  cult,  218. 
Theseus,  165,  166. 
Thesmophoria,  the,  in,  156. 
Thespiae,  78;  cult  of  Eros  at,  228. 
Thessalian  cults,  194,  210.  216. 
thiasoi,  126  f.,  187,  314. 
Thrace,  159,  161,  244;    Dionysus  worship  in, 

186,  241. 
Thrasyllus,  55  note. 


Thrasymachus,  327. 

Thucydides,  265. 

thunderbolt,  of  Zeus,  42,  46,  52,  148. 

Tiryns,  202,  207. 

Titans,  the,  245. 

Tithenidia,  the,  354. 

tithes,  93. 

Tithorea,  Isis  cult  at,  277. 

torch  festivals,  160,  163,  352. 

totemism,  196,  207. 

trade,  gods  of,  159.  283,  349,  359. 

tradition,  power  of,  26,  29 

treaties,  sacredness  of,  317. 

trees,  sacred,  160,  196,  206,  353. 

Tricca,  worship  of  Asclepius  at,  124,  164. 

Triptolemus,  134. 

Troezen,  165. 

Trophonius,  23;   a  form  of  Zeus,  213;  oracle 

of,  58. 

Typhoeus,  228. 
tyrants,  the,  231. 
Tyrtaeus,  232. 

unity  of  belief  and  practice,  tendency  toward, 
28,  255. 

ventriloquism,  57. 

Venus,    cults    at    Rome,   285;     —    Erycina, 

284. 

Vesuvius,  cult  of  Hephaestus  near,  163. 
"  visions,"  134,  243. 
votive  offerings,  36, 87,  92  f.,  126,208;  modern, 

287  f. 

vow,  93,  99. 
vulture,  45. 

Welcker,  theory  of,  336. 

Wernicke,  theory  of,  355. 

winds,  the,  107,  108,  146,  155. 

Wolters,  on  tholos  at  Menidi,  199. 

women,  worship  by,   122,  126,  150,  152,  155, 

156,  241,  277,  307. 
words,  as  omens,  46,  224. 
worship,   attitudes  of,   88  f. ;  early  forms  of, 

193;    Greek  conception  of,  36;  of  tendance, 

196,  199  f. ;   regarded  as  tax,  or  barter,  35,  36, 

88,  222. 

Xcnophanes,  233,  261,  325  f. 
Xenophon,  43,  52,  269,  352. 

Zagreus,  v.  Dionysus  Zagrens. 

Zeus,  altar  of,  at  Olympia,  56;  altar  of,  at 
Pergamon,  70;  an  agricultural  deity,  185; 
birth  of,  149,  200;  court  of,  140;  "  Father 
Zeus,"  15,  30,  149;  head  of,  from  Mylasa, 
15;  in  the  Orphic  myth,  245:  local  cults 
of,  149,  166,  190,  213;  nature  of,  33,  148  f .  ; 
oak  of,  58;  origin  of,  210;  temple  at  Olym- 
pia, 93,  117,  307;  the  sky  god,  30,  43,  148, 
196;  the  supreme  deity,  140,  224,  245,  256  f. 

Zeus,  special  forms  of:  —  Amphiaraos,  166, 
213;  —  Astrapaios,  43;  —  Boulaios,  86; 
—  Cronus,  228;  —  Herkeios,  121;  —  Hor- 
kios,  117;  — Hypatos,  104;  —  Ktesios,  86, 
121 ;  —  Lykaios,  105,  213;  —  Meilichios, 
no,  in,  212  f.;  —  Phratrios,  112. 


16580 


University  of  California 

SOUTHERN  REGIONAL  LIBRARY  FACILITY 

405  Hilgard  Avenue,  Los  Angeles,  CA  90024-1388 

Return  this  material  to  the  library 

from  which  it  was  borrowed. 


C'DC.LOEC12f97 


